diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index 2a34be89fbde47d59a47de72c321bebb852a45b5..cf833cbaf5129a53225dfe390eaae9be68e2458d 100644
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@@ -6,11 +6,28 @@
 The GstLAL project documentation
 ================================
 
+`GstLAL` provides a suite of GStreamer elements that expose gravitational-wave data analysis tools from the LALSuite library for use in GStreamer signal-processing pipelines.
+
+Examples include an element to add simulated gravitational waves to an h(t) stream, and a source element to provide the contents of .gwf frame files to a GStreamer pipeline.
+
+.. _welcome-contents:
+
+Contents
+-------------------------
+
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
-   :caption: Contents:
 
    overview
    getting-started
    projects
    publications
+
+.. _welcome-indices:
+
+Indices and tables
+-------------------------
+
+* :ref:`genindex`
+* :ref:`modindex`
+* :ref:`search`
diff --git a/doc/source/publications.rst b/doc/source/publications.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d969ee5a74e26b91f15484ef737a8f16faf641bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/publications.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Publications
+============
+
+FIXME
+