This article is intended as the leading article in a Special Issue of Voluntas devoted to episodic volunteering from a cross-cultural perspective. This article focuses on summarizing and distilling knowledge about episodic volunteering. Based on a thorough literature review, the authors present state-of-the-art knowledge about episodic volunteering divided into key subsections that include: (1) is episodic volunteering a new area or a new era in volunteering? (2) Defining the concept of episodic volunteering, (3) the singularity of episodic volunteering, (4) assessment of the domains where episodic volunteering is most prevalent, (5) the impact of episodic volunteering on the participating individuals, (6) new parties in volunteer organizations, and (7) managing episodic volunteers. Finally, we present current gaps in our knowledge of episodic volunteers, some of which will be covered in this Special Issue, especially understanding episodic volunteering in non-English-speaking countries.

本文旨在作为《志愿者》特刊的主要文章从跨文化的角度致力于情节式志愿服务。本文着重总结和提炼有关情节志愿服务的知识。在全面的文献综述的基础上，作者介绍了有关情节志愿服务的最新知识，这些知识分为以下主要部分：（1）情节志愿服务是志愿服务的新领域还是新时代？（2）定义了情节志愿服务的概念，（3）情节志愿服务的奇异性，（4）评估了情节志愿服务最普遍的领域，（5）情节志愿服务对参与人员的影响，（6）新的（7）管理情节性志愿者。最后，我们介绍了目前在情节志愿者方面的知识差距，其中一些将在本期特刊中进行介绍，