From the 8 to 12 April, the British Ecological Society's Tropical Ecology Group and the Society for Tropical Ecology held a Joint Meeting in the UK, which I was proud to help organise. The meeting titled “Unifying Tropical Ecology: strengthening collaborative science” aimed to improve connections across the tropics. Around 300 conference delegates assembled in Edinburgh, from 25 different countries. These included 37 researchers presenting workshops, talks and posters on new research from more than 10 countries in Africa. Six African institutions were represented by their own staff or students, with eight North American research institutions, nine Asian institutions and 17 from South and Central America. It was wonderful to see African research in the spotlight in the opening plenary lecture by Professor William Bond, a regular contributor to the African Journal of Ecology. Professor Bond gave an inspiring and thoughtful lecture on the origins, functions and conservation of open habitats, which are so often forgotten in our global charge to preserve forests. During the meeting, the new Africa Chapter of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation held a workshop lead by Dr Edu Efiom, President of the Chapter, reflecting on ways to increase the voice of African researchers in ecology. The workshop was so heavily attended that it was standing-room only and participants who arrived late were having to listen from the open doorway. I was delighted to see such enthusiasm for African research, and for improving opportunities for African researchers, from colleagues across the globe. At the same time and the ATBC Africa Chapter workshop was being held, another workshop on early career publishing was being held across the corridor. Members of the Editorial staff of very well-known journals including Science, TREE, Ecology Letters, Biotropica and Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, as well as the African Journal of Ecology, attended the conference and some gave their time to answer questions from young researchers on the process of getting their research published, what to expect, what to do and, of course, what not to do. This sort of collegial support is desperately needed to bring African research into mainstream publishing and to redress the data-poverty which often hampers ecological understanding and good environmental and conservation planning on the continent. From what I saw in Edinburgh last month, the global community of tropical ecologists very much wants to support African institutions and individuals to carry out and publish excellent research and will be keen to read about that science. The meeting, and particularly the success of those two workshops, boosted my energy and resolve to help keep the African Journal of Ecology a key player in bringing African ecological science to the world.