Editorial.

Last May, the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR) held the 30th International Conference on Antiviral research in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This is one of the most important international meetings in our research field and it attracts scientists from different scientific backgrounds, from chemistry to biology. ISAR is the premier international organization completely dedicated to antiviral research and Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy is proud to be one of the society’s official journals. Our aim is to consolidate this relationship in the next few years and to explore new opportunities to work closely together. Indeed, in Atlanta, we have offered an open access fees waiver to the winner of the Young Researcher poster award. This recognizes the effort of AVCC, echoed by ISAR, in supporting early stage researchers in a crucial moment of their career, when they are building their international profile. We believe that through these kinds of initiatives, we can increase our visibility and reputation in the antiviral research community and, at the same time, do what we do best: helping the scientists in the field to make their work visible and accessible. We will continue to offer the publication fees waiver as part of the ISAR Young investigator Poster award in the future and we will keep working with ISAR to further expand our collaboration. Following up on the support for early stage researcher, AVCC is always very keen to engage with them and involve them in our activities. Acting as Guest Editor in one of our Special Collections, for example, can provide the young scientists with a new experience and insight in the editorial world. Indeed, our initial collections will be edited by three very bright rising stars in the antiviral field: Jerome Deval, Joana Duarte and Giuseppe La Regina. We are now planning a new series of Special Collections and we are looking for new potential Guest Editors. For this reason, we would be very happy to hear your ideas and if you think you would be interested in acting as editor, do not hesitate in contacting us. Finally, I will now leave you to what AVCC is really about: the science. We have some very interesting paper just published in this issue and I strongly encourage you to read them and share them with your colleagues.