The power to reach a global audience
The Conversation
What is The Conversation?
The Conversation is a Creative Commons site – written by academics from universities across the world, content is free to read and free to republish.
How does it work?
Short articles of 600-800 words providing insight, analysis or comment on stories in the news. They can report on, or explain, new research. You can even write explainer pieces (link to Alan’s) or even just answer an interesting question.
Why write?
Writing for The Conversation will help you reach a wider audience, raising your profile along with the University’s. It can increase your research impact (handy for REF) and improve your skills at communicating with a non-academic audience.
Articles are republished by international outlets including The Guardian, Daily Mail, The New York Times, IFLScience (graphic of republishers).
Nearly 14.5 million people have read articles by Queen's academics, with over 40% in American, 8% in Australia, as well as readers in India, Malaysia, across Africa and Europe. Articles were even read by people in Tuvalu and Wallis and Futuna.
Need to wax lyrical?
The Conversation is trying out new styles
The Conversation has a new long read section called "In Depth". With the help of the editorial team, academics can write a special 3,000 word article or you can discuss your piece in a video or podcast.
Something for the kids
"Curious Kids" are articles aimed at the younger reader.
Taking science and news and making it fun is a great skill to master and a new way to get your research to the next generation.
I think The Conversation offers a fantastic platform allowing fun and facile collaboration with talented editors to engage with those outside of academia and affect impact. Dr Connor Bamford
Virologist, Wellcome-Wolfson Institute Experimental Medicine
Connor's Covid-19 articles have been read by over 1.2m people
Connor Bamford awarded Prof Sir Paul Curran Award for Excellence in Academic Journalism 2020
Queen's virologist Dr Connor Bamford has been awarded this year's Prof Sir Paul Curran Award for Excellence in Academic Journalism for his articles on the coronavirus.
His first article Mystery China pneumonia outbreak likely caused by new human coronavirus was published on The Conversation long before the virus was named. He has continued to write on the subject, his article in June The original Sars virus disappeared – here’s why coronavirus won’t do the same has been read by over 700,000 people and republised by over 200 outlets including IFLScience, Yahoo! News and Science Alert.
The Conversation opened my research to a global audience. Normally my writing is oriented to other academics – however conveying my research findings to the general public brought new perspectives to my work. This has driven my research in a new direction which I previously hadn’t considered. Dr Gerry Gormley
Senior Academic General Practitioner
Gerry's article has been read nearly 2 million people
Expert Requests
The daily call-out for a writer
The Expert Request is a daily call-out containing a handful of stories The Conversation's editorial team wish to cover but haven't identified a writer.
The expert request is a great opportunity for you to highlight the academic expertise at Queen's University.
These articles will be around 600-800 words. The researcher who can bring the most in-depth understanding of the topic, the most insightful analysis or the most original angle to the story will be the person they editors chose to write it. However, with over 65 member universities receiving the daily email, a speedy response is important to allow the Communications Office to pitch you as a potential writer.
If you are selected you will receive considerable support from the commissioning editor.
My article on The Conversation was based on core themes in my book, which was published around the same time. It was an excellent way of showcasing my research within and beyond academia, and generating a wider debate on topic that affects everyone. Dr Heather Conway
School of Law
“Five laws about the dead” was read 600,000 times in a day
Recently Published on The Conversation
The three latest articles written by Queen's academics
A message from the Team at The Conversation
"Many academics at Conversation member institutions have been warning for years that Britain's unwritten constitution – made up of acts, conventions and court judgments – is a fragile one. I can't count how many times I've been approached with articles about why we need a formal constitution. But trying to get readers engaged with the issue has often been frustrating.
"This, however, was far from a problem when our new prime minister moved to prorogue parliament this month. Constitutional law experts stepped up to explain what was happening and the public couldn’t get enough.
"It was the perfect example of how research that has been bubbling along in the background for decades can suddenly become the only thing anyone is talking about"
Laura Hood
Politics Editor
Date: 11/05/2021
Time: 11:30AM - 1:00PM
Location: Online event
Category: Information Event, Training / Learning & Development, Workshop / Seminar / Course
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Further reading
Queen’s Conversation profile page