The Howard Hughes Medical Institute News reports that Randy W. Schekman, a distinguished cell biologist and the 14th editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has been named the first editor of a new journal that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust aim to launch next year.

Randy explains, "It is my strong feeling that there is a need for a scientific journal at the very high end that is run by active practicing scientists embedded in an academic environment..." The journal aims to be a major publication of the world's best research in the life sciences. The new editor views open access as the future publishing model and intends to "build on the pioneering efforts of the Public Library of Science so that scientists will have access to this literature and the data anywhere they are."