Flinders Professor John Long has reached a staggering milestone on The Conversation, following his article co-authored with Dr Alice Clement on Flinders’ bony fish breakthrough, which made headlines for unearthing a new evolutionary link to the first bony fishes.

The Conversation article had been read by 25,616 readers within 24 hours of publishing and enabled Professor Long’s readership on the independent news site to hit the magic million-and-a-half mark.

As Flinders most published author on the site, Dr Long understands its power to communicate breakthroughs and insights, build researchers profiles and demonstrate community engagement. The Flinders Strategic Professor in the College of Science and Engineering often submits articles to the not-for-profit educational website, which is held in high regard around the world for its authentic articles by the academic and research community.

As at the end of May 2018, Professor Long’s 31 articles had been read by 1,504,095 readers, most of these located internationally including around 45% within the United States.

A study released earlier this year by The Conversation found that the majority of the 35 million people it reaches every month use the knowledge they acquire by reading articles on the site for learning or influencing their attitudes or behaviour, however content is also used by many to inform industry and government decision-making.

The University as a whole reaps the rewards of its researchers’ contributions, which highlight its credentials as a world-class research institution and help to raise its expert public profile, which in turn benefits it people. Flinders has increased its overall readership significantly in recent times, even ranking ahead of the University of Adelaide for the past six months.