We are delighted to announce the launch of the new specialty section on Avian Physiology within Frontiers in Physiology. Professor Colin G. Scanes of the University of Arkansas is leading the new section as Specialty Chief Editor.

According to Prof. Scanes, Avian Physiology will provide an innovative platform specifically dedicated to the physiology of wild birds and, at the same time, to the physiology of poultry. This will promote the interaction between the two important and potentially interconnected research communities. ‘Research on poultry is relevant research on wild birds and vice versa. Indeed, this is the raison d’etre for this new section’. Nevertheless, as an academic himself, Prof. Scanes is well aware of the issues that may arise from overlaying different avian species’ physiologies – ‘A bird is not a bird’.

The section comes at the timely moment as the field still hinders many challenges that researchers ought to address. The most relevant being: (i) reproduction in hens, (ii) the avian immunology, (iii) the metabolic demands of flight and (iv) the hormonal control of growth. This new section explores how birds have been invaluable models in disparate arenas, reinventing the academic landscape, allowing researchers to contribute to the development of the field, from advances in communication between researchers to the public engagement of the academic community.

Frontiers in Physiology, as an open-access journal, will be the ideal platform to share the latest advancements in the field, being fully committed to the open science initiative. This attempt towards the democratization of scientific literature, providing free access and reuse for potentially everyone in the world, will give researchers the opportunity to communicate with a broader audience. Moreover, the liberty of re-utilization drastically supports the spreading of scientific knowledge and its validation, making open-access an efficient system for promoting scientific research.

Prof. Scanes’s goal is to empower scientists and give them the possibility to interact both among different fields of the avian community and with laymen. It is likely, due to economical and societal impacts of such topics, a broad portion of the non-academic public will be interested in learning more about their poultry.

Avian Physiology is now ready to welcome high-quality submissions and Research Topic proposals.