diff --git a/doc/API.rst.txt b/doc/API.rst.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f5d7c9d6ec6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/API.rst.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+API - importing from Scipy
+==========================
+
+In Python the distinction between what is the public API of a library and what
+are private implementation details is not always clear.  Unlike in other
+languages like Java, it is possible in Python to access "private" function or
+objects.  Occasionally this may be convenient, but be aware that if you do so
+your code may break without warning in future releases.  Some widely understood
+rules for what is and isn't public in Python are:
+
+  - Methods / functions / classes and module attributes whose names begin 
+    with a leading underscore are private.
+  - If a class name begins with a leading underscore none of its members are 
+    public, whether or not they begin with a leading underscore.
+  - If a module name in a package begins with a leading underscore none of 
+    its members are public, whether or not they begin with a leading
+    underscore.
+  - If a module or package defines ``__all__`` that authoritatively defines the
+    public interface.
+  - If a module or package doesn't define ``__all__`` then all names that don't 
+    start with a leading underscore are public.
+
+.. note:: Reading the above guidelines one could draw the conclusion that every
+          private module or object starts with an underscore.  This is not the 
+          case; the presence of underscores do mark something as private, but
+          the absence of underscores do not mark something as public.
+
+In Scipy there are modules whose names don't start with an underscore, but that
+should be considered private.  To clarify which modules these are we define
+below what the public API is for Scipy, and give some recommendations for how
+to import modules/functions/objects from Scipy.
+
+Guidelines for importing functions from Scipy
+---------------------------------------------
+
+The scipy namespace itself only contains functions imported from numpy.  These
+functions still exist for backwards compatibility, but should be imported from
+numpy directly.
+
+Everything in the namespaces of scipy submodules is public.  In general, it is
+recommended to import functions from submodule namespaces.  For example, the
+function ``curve_fit`` (defined in scipy/optimize/minpack.py) should be
+imported like this::
+
+  from scipy import optimize
+  result = optimize.curve_fit(...)
+
+This form of importing submodules is preferred for all submodules except
+``scipy.io`` (because ``io`` is also the name of a module in the Python
+stdlib)::
+
+  from scipy import interpolate
+  from scipy import integrate
+  import scipy.io as spio
+
+In some cases, the public API is one level deeper.  For example the
+``scipy.sparse.linalg`` module is public, and the functions it contains are not
+available in the ``scipy.sparse`` namespace.  Sometimes it may result in more
+easily understandable code if functions are imported from one level deeper.
+For example, in the following it is immediately clear that ``lomax`` is a
+distribution if the second form is chosen::
+
+  # first form
+  from scipy import stats
+  stats.lomax(...)
+
+  # second form
+  from scipy.stats import distributions
+  distributions.lomax(...)
+
+In that case the second form can be chosen, **if** it is documented in the next
+section that the submodule in question is public.
+
+
+API definition
+--------------
+
+Every submodule listed below is public.  That means that these submodules are
+unlikely to be renamed or changed in an incompatible way, and if that is
+necessary a deprecation warning will be raised for one Scipy release before the
+change is made.
+
+* scipy.cluster
+
+  - vq
+  - hierarchy
+
+* scipy.constants
+
+* scipy.fftpack
+
+* scipy.integrate
+
+* scipy.interpolate
+
+* scipy.io
+
+  - arff
+  - harwell_boeing
+  - idl
+  - matlab
+  - netcdf
+  - wavfile
+
+* scipy.linalg
+
+* scipy.maxentropy
+
+* scipy.misc
+
+* scipy.ndimage
+
+* scipy.odr
+
+* scipy.optimize
+
+* scipy.signal
+
+* scipy.sparse
+
+  - linalg
+
+* scipy.spatial
+
+  - distance
+
+* scipy.special
+
+* scipy.stats
+
+  - distributions
+  - mstats
+
+* scipy.weave
+
diff --git a/doc/source/api.rst b/doc/source/api.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..aea89fb705a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/api.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.. include:: ../API.rst.txt
diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index adad691d4828..01cbd444f1ec 100644
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ science, and engineering.
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
 
+   api
    release
 
 Reference