Stem cell research has experienced an incredible surge in the past five years: funding initiatives worldwide, scientific publications and coverage in the mainstream media have accelerated. Fueling this surge is the belief that stem cell research will bring a new set of therapies in the coming decade to treat a variety of human ills.

With the surge has come a need for improved outlets of communication. Our goal is to provide a dynamic forum for discussion and information, as well as content as diverse as the stakeholders in this field—scientists, policy makers, the business and legal communities, ethicists, clinicians, and all of us who stand to benefit from stem cell therapies someday.

Nature Reports Stem Cells was launched to explore the latest developments in this dynamic field. And we hope to do so in unusual ways. Inside the Paper posts edited discussions between authors and reviewers during peer review. Such transparency should not only deepen readers' understandings of individual research publications, it will expose the workings of peer review itself. In the coming months, we plan to launch a Toolbox section will aggregate information on stem-cell protocols, reagents, and cell lines that would otherwise require trawling through literature or having serendipitous conversations at conferences.

And we won't let tried and true journalism fall by the wayside. A distinguished line-up of featured editors from the ranks of stem cell stakeholders will offer their insight on controversial topics and historic breakthroughs. In our inaugural issue, Ian Wilmut makes the case for creating hybrids of human nuclei with animal eggs—even if such attempts fail to produce embryonic stem cells. Future commentaries will probe how to make sure taxpayers get a return for their investment or explore how the notion of pluripotency can inform one's understanding of the divine.

All content produced for Nature Reports is free, and we are making some other Nature content free as well. But we hope the most incisive insights will come from beyond the ranks of Nature Reports staff. The online community will bolster, broaden, and direct these discussions. A talented array of researchers have already agreed to share their thoughts on issues in stem cell science on our new blog, The Niche, and we hope you join them.

We are also providing an opportunity to select your most (or least!) favorite paper from the literature in our Journal Club—a forum where our readers can comment on papers, and vote on how well they like them, providing an informal ranking system where the most discussed papers are most visible to our readers.

So join us in making this site a true community website by coming here often and expressing your views. You'll see a lot of new content on the site every week. And in the coming months, we will start to publish new content daily.

And please share with us editors your views on the content and organization of the site. The best way to reach us is theniche@nature.com.