Call for Papers: Virus-Host Interactions and Antiviral Discovery

ACS Infectious Diseases is accepting submissions the Special Issue “Virus-Host Interactions and Antiviral Discovery.” This Special Issue will highlight innovative research that advances our understanding of the interactions between viruses and their hosts and how these insights can be leveraged to develop the next generation of antiviral therapeutics.

We welcome contributions that expand our knowledge of host factors involved in viral infection and pathogenesis, explore host-directed and broad-spectrum antiviral strategies, and apply emerging experimental and computational approaches to antiviral target discovery and validation. By bringing together fundamental virology, chemical biology, systems biology, and translational research, this Special Issue aims to showcase new strategies for combating current and future viral threats.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Virus-host interactions and host dependency factors
• Host-directed antiviral discovery
• Broad-spectrum and combination antiviral strategies
• Functional genomics and systems-level approaches to virology
• Chemical biology and antiviral target validation
• AI-enabled antiviral drug discovery
• Translational antiviral research and pandemic preparedness

For additional details, we encourage you to read the accompanying Editorial. Manuscripts should be submitted by May 1, 2027.

Organizing Editors

Shashank Tripathi, Early Career Board, ACS Infectious Diseases
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India

Megan Shaw, Guest Editor
University of Western Cape, South Africa

Sumit Chanda, Guest Editor
Scripps Research Institute, United States

Scott Pegan, Associate Editor, ACS Infectious Diseases
University of California Riverside, United States

Submission Information

We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through May 1, 2027. For more information on submission requirements, please review the journal’s Author Guidelines.

Manuscripts considered for this Special Issue may be submitted as Research Articles, Letters, Perspectives (invitation only), Reviews (proposal only), or Viewpoints (invitation only). All submissions will undergo the full, rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals. Papers accepted for publication in this Special Issue will be available online ASAP (as soon as publishable). Once all accepted papers are published, they will be compiled on a dedicated landing page to form the Special Issue.

Open Access: There are diverse open access options for publications in American Chemical Society journals. Please visit our Open Science Resource Center for more information.

How to Submit

• Log in to the ACS Publishing Center.
• Select your manuscript type; upload your manuscript and related files.
• Review the title and abstract fields to confirm any pre-populated information has transferred correctly.
• Under “Special Issue Selection,” select Virus-Host Interactions and Antiviral Discovery.
• Confirm all other information is correct.
• Submit your article.

If you have any general questions regarding submission to this Special Issue, please contact eic@id.acs.org.