In the end, research on functional languages does little good unless they are used to write something other than compilers for functional languages. However, if one scans a typical functional programming conference or journal, one mainly sees papers on twists in language design, speed-ups in compiled code, clever new analyses, or refinements to semantic models. It much less common to see a paper that considers a functional language as a tool to some other practical end. We would like to see this change.

The Journal of Functional Programming carries, and will continue to carry, articles on all aspects of functional programming from lambda calculus theory to language design to implementation. But we have specially sought, and will continue to seek, papers on functional programming practice and experience.

Research and papers on practice and experience sometimes receive less attention because they are perceived as possessing less academic content. So we want to remind potential authors that we have published a number of papers on this topic in the past, and to spell out the criteria we apply to such papers.