A million reasons to read The Conversation

Professor John Long is Flinders University's most popular author for The Conversation, with his articles attracting more than 140,000 readers.
Professor John Long is Flinders University’s top author for The Conversation, with his articles attracting more than 140,000 readers.

Marking a major milestone, Flinders University has officially cracked one million readers on The Conversation – Australia’s leading independent channel of information, analysis and opinion sourced directly from the academic and research community.

Since its inception in 2011, The Conversation has published 215 articles and research briefs from 67 Flinders authors, including frequent contributors Dr Alice Gorman, Dr Christine Nicholls, Dr Ben Wadham and Professor Leon Lack, with the articles capturing a total audience of 1,000,214 readers.

The news, commentary and analysis produced by Flinders academics for the online publication covers a range of topics pertinent to both Australian society and global communities – from politics, human health and Indigenous affairs to sports, science and culture.

The five most-read Conversation articles by Flinders authors are: Plan to build ‘CSI Elephant’ uses DNA forensics to track poachers (46,732 readers) by Professor Adrian Linacre; The oldest fish in the world lived 500 million years ago (38,385 readers) by Professor John Long; Now listen: air-breathing fish gave humans the ability to hear (22,289 readers), also by Professor Long; Monday’s medical myth: you need eight hours of continuous sleep each night (21,401 readers) by Professor Leon Lack; Male kangaroos woo mates with bulging biceps (21,191), involving Associate Professor Rod Wells.

The top five Flinders articles attracting the most comments are: It’s time we draft Aussie Rules to tackle Indigenous mathematics (523 comments) by Dr Christine Nicholls; Shorten’s budget in reply: will it reshape voters’ memories? (195 comments) by Dr Rob Manwaring; With Navy’s record of abuse, asylum boat claims can’t be ignored (178 comments) by Dr Ben Wadham; Securing the safety of genetic modification (166 comments) by Associate Professor Judy Carman; and Does Australia ‘get’ culture? (149 comments) by Professor Julian Meyrick.

The top five authors based on the total number of readers are: Professor John Long (140,968 readers across seven articles); Professor Leon Lack (94,727 across seven articles); Dr Alice Gorman (81,490 readers across 14 articles); Dr Christine Nicholls (58,375 readers across 11 articles) and Professor Adrian Linacre (46,733 readers for one article).

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