Research
Share your expertise with tens of thousands of readers on The Conversation
Science platform The Conversation is looking for scientists who want to get research across to a wide audience or explain current affairs, for an average of several tens of thousands of clicks per article.
Leiden University has had a partnership with The Conversation science website for two years. This English-language platform publishes daily articles for the general public all of which are related to current affairs. Colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities have written on the website in response to Trump's annexation plans, the death of drag queen Vivienne and the discovery of new sources from Antiquity.
The Conversation has a partnership with major international media outlets such as CNN and The Guardian, which regularly repost The Conversation articles. Scholars with articles on The Conversation are also frequently approached by other international media for comments and interviews.
Professor Eric Storm published an article early this year in response to Trump's plans to annex foreign territories. 'My experience with The Conversation has been very positive. Although the cooperation with the editor was sometimes a bit difficult, he did a good job of rewriting part of the text to make it more accessible and appealing. Also, his questions helped me think through my argumentation better and formulate it clearly. In the end, my article attracted over 20,000 readers (you can see this easily via your own dashboard at The Conversation). In addition, my text has appeared in full in a dozen newspapers and on online news sites. This is not only via Western sites, such as Yahoo News, but also in Asia (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh), Latin America (Mexico) and Africa (Uganda). Following the article, I also gave interviews to a Turkish news site and BBC Brazil. So you have really global exposure.'
Want to get on The Conversation?
The Conversation sends out a daily list of requests for expertise. If you would like to be kept informed of requests relevant to you, just contact pers@hum.leidenuniv.nl. The Conversation is also open to scientists' own pitches. The communications department can help you with this, via pers@hum.leidenuniv.nl.