You may have noticed, as you opened the website of this issue of Oncogene or perhaps held the physical hard copy in your hands (I have heard that some of you do) a tiny jolt of electric excitement, a frisson of joyous expectation. Or perhaps not. (Okay, probably not). But the thing is, we at the journal are giddy today in welcoming the birth of Oncogene's little sister, Oncogenesis.

We have chosen her name to reflect her heritage and her focus. She is a new online, open access journal about the molecular basis of cancer and closely related phenomena. Go ahead—have a look. It's free.

Every day, hundreds and sometimes thousands (depending on the day) of papers are published in the many scientific specialties. And even if we zero in on our own, particular interests, we are deluged with information. Why then, you may ask, do we need yet another journal?

Okay, since you asked: Information, as the saying goes (it is a fairly recent saying) wants to be free—‘free’ in the sense of being there for others to find. When we, as scientists, find out something through the terribly hard effort we call science, we want to tell others—it is why we do it, really.

However, we also know that there is often a problem with this telling others, because there is a great deal of science being done in the world, and one journal, even a weekly journal such as Oncogene, can only publish a small amount of it. The journals must be selective. And so we raise the bar, demanding more mechanistic insight, extension to general conclusions, and, well, completeness, for any particular paper to pass the gauntlet that leads to publication. This means that many potentially interesting papers must be passed over. Print, by necessity, is limited.

Enter Oncogenesis. Papers that contain observations of interest to cancer biologists, but that might not meet the rising standards of Oncogene, will be shared through the medium of electronic publication. Of course, these are peer-reviewed to ensure scientific rigor, and we think you, as a discriminating reader, will find much of interest. And because the journal is open access, it is available to anyone with an internet connection.

Naturally, because Oncogenesis does not require a subscription to read it, someone must pay for it. The costs of the publications are absorbed by the authors, who have already invested a great deal in the work, and in comparison to that investment, make a relatively small additional payment to provide you with access to their work. Information may want to be free, but getting the information, and getting it out, is not. We hope that if you choose to publish in Oncogenesis, you understand.

It is a massive amount of work to review, evaluate, edit and manage even one scientific journal such as Oncogene. Now we are pleased to offer two. Please be patient with Oncogene's little sister, Oncogenesis, and I hope you will join us in watching her grow up.