Professor John Paterson achieved a rather unique milestone (for UNE). His article Freaky ‘frankenprawns’: ancient deep sea monsters called radiodonts had incredible vision that likely drove an evolutionary arms race was the most-read article by The Conversation audiences last week.

At the time, the article had been read by 229,919 Conversation readers, and an additional 369,136 via republication. The article was also a hit overseas with the vast majority of readers (over 255,000) from the United States of America.

On social media it was shared to Facebook from The Conversation’s site more than 3.5K times. The Conversation’s Instagram story based on the article was read 11,305 times.

The milestone marked a solid run of articles authored by UNE academics in The Conversation for 2020. In total, 33 authors published 31 articles that were read 1,786,691 times and generated 1,531 comments. 

The majority of articles, written by 21 academics, were generated following The how to write for The Conversation pitch held over two days in September. It is UNE Media’s intention to hold a similar event in 2021 with more information to follow closer to the time.

Thank you to everyone that contributed so far and if you’re interested in writing for The Conversation, this link guide you on how to pitch your story.

More statistics below.