The journal began life with the purpose to publish “rigorous and comprehensive papers that represent advances of significance to specialists within each field”, as well as to serve communities that don’t have a dedicated home in the Nature family or researchers seeking publication in a broad journal. Another founding principle was to offer a platform for multidisciplinary works, given that, “the number of truly multidisciplinary primary research journals can be counted on one hand”. We wish to continue to meet those needs for authors and readers.