Editorial BMC Ecology has always been open to a wide range of topics from biodiversity research, and the International Year of Biodiversity [1] presents an opportunity to clarify that the journal includes subject matter that extends beyond the borders of ecology sensu stricto. We continue to consider all articles related to the ecology of animals, plants and microorganisms and wish to emphasise 'biodiversity' within the scope of the journal. We are confident that ecologists, evolutionary biologists and all scientists interested in biodiversity research will welcome our extended invitation to share this niche in an open access community journal. It is also an appropriate time to acknowledge the synthesis of research traditions that is continuing under the umbrella of 'biodiversity research'. Biodiversity researchers come from all walks of academic life. They include systematic biologists, working with museum or herbarium specimens, who collect and describe new species and delineate others. Some academics may be branded as biodiversity researchers for their interest in evolutionary biology and speciation. Ecologists and conservation biologists, studying how species interact with each other and their environment, share a mutual goal in discovering how to protect threatened ecosystems. While interrelated, these different traditions have developed their own methods and to a certain extent their own language. 'Biodiversity research' unites these different research traditions. While some taxonomists would protest at being referred to as an ecologist (and vice versa), they can hardly object to being called biodiversity scientists. The input and collaboration of different research traditions is key, if progress is to be made in understanding life on earth in all its variety - and progress has to be made fast, with ecosystems under threat from causes too many and all too familiar. What can a journal such as BMC Ecology do to promote collaboration of biodiversity researchers? And what sets BMC Ecology apart from other journals?