This paper is a slightly modified introduction to my cumulative habilitation thesis (Studies in information structure and reference), submitted for consideration at the Charles University in Prague. It contains a survey of the core notions of information structure and reference (as used in the formal approaches to syntax and semantics), of how these notions have developed and how they relate to others - both terminologically and conceptually. It also provides an overview of the existing theories of the IS-syntax and IS-semantics interfaces.