Research into subjects of concern to technical communicators is occurring with increasing frequency. But as it increases, we must ask ourselves: Is the research serving its purpose? What should researchers be doing? These are the questions that underlie the articles in this special issue.

Practitioners and academics both are subject to and participate in frequent reviews, but these reviews often fail to provide useful results. This article illustrates problems with reviews, identifies common purposes for reviews, and presents recommendations for reviewers and review-seekers.

Communicators have special opportunities to promote environmental ethics. This paper shows how environmental ethics relates to the workplace and gives ideas about how communicators can help the environment in their work.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

In today's competitive markets, organizations may be tempted to reduce costs by cutting staff or hiring less skilled, and thus less costly, staff. At the same time, and for the same reasons, the need for higher quality in reports and manuals grows. As companies begin to invest in quality, they are finding that "good" is no longer good enough. To achieve excellence, staff must have the right skills. The paper describes how to find technical editors who can make documents more than just good, editors who can think about the content of the message, not just its presentation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>