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Sandra Braman (2011,1) writes that "historically, new scholarly journals appeared when new subjects of study achieved disciplinary or subdisciplinary status. Today, they are also created when new audiences and communities of scholarly practice appear." It is important to note that new scholarly publications also appear when seemingly intractable social problems reach a level of such significance they demand a central avenue of inquiry. Such is the case with the study of secrecy. In creating the peerreviewed open access journal Secrecy and Society, which exclusively focuses on secrecy and associated conditions of information, the exploration of all things secrecy now has a scholarly home. In my discussion below, I frame secrecy as a compelling social problem that often reflects Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber's (1973) idea of a wicked problem. In addition to this framework, I suggest the field of Secrecy Studies offers another way of investigating secrecy across the social landscape. I conclude my discussion by introducing contributions to this inaugural issue of Secrecy and Society by several of its editorial board members.

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