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Welcome to the First Special Issue of the journal Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds; and may I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and productive New Year!

The Journal Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds is on a great run. Several eminent scientists have recently joined CHC as new Advisory and Editorial Board members. Another great news is that last year, the number of downloads of CHC articles from the Springer web site has doubled compared to that of the previous year.

Toward further advance of the Journal, the Editorial office has launched this Special Review Issue. It is composed of 26 invited contributions from Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Canada, and USA, including 10 highlights, 12 mini-reviews, and 4 regular review articles written by established academic and industrial chemists.

The Issue covers diverse topics of modern aspects of heterocyclic chemistry, including synthesis, structure, and physicochemical and biological properties of heterocyclic molecules. Articles on synthesis include de novo construction of fused heterocyclic cores via cycloaddition protocols (V. P. Ananikov), through recyclization methods (E. B. Babaev, A. F. Khlebnikov, and M. Rubin), and via multicomponent coupling reactions (I. V. Magedov and A. Kornienko). Rearrangements in heterocycles are discussed by V. I. Minkin, their C-H functionalizations by E. Suna, O. Daugulis, and B. A. Trofimov, and employment of heterocycles as superbases by A. F. Pozharskii. Utilization of certain types of heterocyclic compounds in synthesis of complex natural and biologically important molecules is summarized by A. Zakarian, S. L. Ioffe, A. K. Yudin, and A. V. Demchenko. The role of heterocyclic compounds in drug discovery research is highlighted by V. Yu. Dudkin and A. Gomtsyan. I believe these and other excellent reviews covering broad areas of heterocyclic chemistry will be of interest to the broad audience of CHC readers.

I hope you enjoy reading the First Special Issue of CHC. The Editorial office of the Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds is looking forward to receiving your excellent contribution to the journal.

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Prof. Vladimir Gevorgyan

University of Illinois at Chicago

Guest Editor