Interested in public scholarship but not sure where to start? Try out The Conversation!

Get started in public scholarship by pitching a story to The Conversation. Many of our leading public scholars have published in this independent nonprofit news source, which publishes informative articles written by academics and researchers for the general public. (PhD candidates can also write for The Conversation under the superivision of an academic.)

At the Program in Public Scholarship, we are available to help you:

  • Brainstorm story ideas and formats
  • Write and hone a pitch (which we can submit on your behalf)
  • Navigate the writing and editing process, from pitch to publication!

Through a Creative Commons license, The Conversation's articles are republished in over 1,000 online outlets including the AP Wire, Yahoo! News, CNN, and Business Insider as well as smaller, more niche outlets; they are also republished in over 300 print newspapers around the U.S.

According to The Conversation, 86% of authors reported some kind of post-publication impact on their career, including being contacted by media for interviews, an increase in scholarly citations, and being able to use story metrics for funding or grant applications.

Story Formats

In addition to its standard 800-1,000-word stories, The Conversation publishes stories across a few different formats:

  • Research Briefs: short takes on interesting research and academic work that is new or about to be published (under 600 words)
  • Significant Figures: stories driven by a single interesting statistic or numeric figure that’s currently newsworthy (500-600 words)
  • Significant Terms: articles that define something that is in the news or relevant to life in the U.S. in a brief, simple, and engaging way (under 400 words)
  • Curious Kids: stories that answer questions submitted by real kids from around the world in a simple and engaging way (600-800 words)
  • Uncommon Courses: brief, insightful articles about a unique course that tackles a subject in a new orinteresting way
  • Panels: stories that are reactions or analysis from multiple sources (typically three to five) and are related to an event or another timely topic or issue (150-250 words per scholar)
  • Q+A: a lighter lift format that can help scholars and editors explain complex topics in a lay reader-friendly way
  • Scientists at Work: first-person narratives about how research is done, focusing less on a specific scientific finding and more on the process and experience of investigating a scientific question

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Oren Reshef in The Conversation: Identifying brands as Black-owned can pay off for businesses

Labeling businesses as Black-owned can significantly boost their sales, we found in a recent study. In June 2020, the business-review website Yelp introduced a feature allowing consumers to search for Black-owned restaurants. As professors who study digitization, inequality and the economics of technology, we were interested in understanding its effect. So we analyzed more than two years of data from Yelp.

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The Conversation

Jianqing Chen in The Conversation: What’s happening on RedNote? A media scholar explains the app TikTok users are fleeing to

TikTok refugees fled by the millions to RedNote, a Chinese app, in response to the TikTok ban, which went into effect Jan. 19, 2025. The company shut down the app shortly before midnight on Jan. 18 but restored service the following day. The app was unavailable to download from the Apple and Google app stores on Jan. 19.

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Want to learn more about writing for The Conversation or discuss a pitch idea?

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