Embedding Citizen Science in Research: Forms of engagement, scientific output and values for science, policy and society

Abstract

This paper addresses emerging forms of Citizen Science (Citizen Science), and discusses their value for science, policy and society. It clarifies how the term Citizen Science is used and identifies different forms of Citizen Science. This is important, since with blurred distinctions there is a risk of both overrating and underestimating the value of Citizen Science and of misinterpreting what makes a significant contribution to scientific endeavour.The paper identifies three main forms of citizen science 1) Citizen Science as a research method, aiming for scientific output, 2) Citizen Science as public engagement, aiming to establish legitimacy for science and science policy in society, and, 3) Citizen Science as civic mobilization, aiming for legal or political influence in relation to specific issues. In terms of scientific output, the first form of Citizen Science exceeds the others in terms of scientific peer-reviewed articles. These projects build on strict protocols and rules for participation and rely on mass inclusion to secure the quality of contributions. Volunteers are invited to pursue very delimited tasks, defined by the scientists.The value of the three distinct forms of Citizen Science –for science, for policy and for society, is discussed to situate Citizen Science in relation to current policy initiatives in Europe and in the US. In quantitative terms the US, and particularly the NSF have so far taken a lead in allocating research funding to Citizen Science projects (primarily of the first form), however, the White House has recently issued a memorandum addressing societal and scientific challenges through citizen science covering all three forms discussed in this paper. As Citizen Science is currently being launched as a way to change the very landscape of science, important gaps in research are identified and policy recommendations are provided, in order for policy makers to be able to assess and anticipate the value of different forms of Citizen Science with regard to future research policy.

Co-Creating and Implementing Quality Criteria for Citizen Science

“…Indeed, developing quality criteria for citizen science projects implies a trade-off between openness and minimum standards (Ottinger 2010). For example, one of the goals of the criteria was to demarcate citizen science projects from purely educational or non-scientific participatory projects, which are equally important to society but usually have no research goal or question (Kasperowski et al 2017). In our view, the distinction between citizen science and other forms of participatory projects can only be made provisionally, should always be made pragmatically, and be driven by transdisciplinary input in a bottom-up manner.…”

“…approaches; on the other hand, scientists across disciplines doubt whether citizen science can truly live up to standards of good scientific practice (Elliott and Rosenberg 2019). Additionally, citizen science is often confused with other forms of participatory projects, such as science education, science communication, and outreach activities (Kasperowski et al 2017). Indeed, there seems to be a mismatch between the very premise of citizen science embracing methodological innovation (Riesch and Potter 2013) and the need to establish a set of shared criteria to practice it (see discussion in (Auerbach et al 2019;Heigl et al 2019a, b).…”

Behind the scenes of planning for public participation: planning for air-quality monitoring with low-cost sensors

“…In Citizen Science, volunteers are involved in scientific or monitoring processes by assisting with observations and classifications, or by creating data to e.g. tracking the diversity of organisms, monitoring species or air quality (Bonney et al 2009;Kasperowski, Kullenberg, and M€ akitalo 2017). As a Citizen Science initiative, we describe them as aiming for civic mobilization (Kasperowski, Kullenberg, and M€ akitalo 2017).…”

“…tracking the diversity of organisms, monitoring species or air quality (Bonney et al 2009;Kasperowski, Kullenberg, and M€ akitalo 2017). As a Citizen Science initiative, we describe them as aiming for civic mobilization (Kasperowski, Kullenberg, and M€ akitalo 2017). The Swedish and the German initiatives are here described as Citizen Sensing (Berti Suman and van Geenhuizen 2020), but could also be described as Community Based Monitoring (Carlson and Cohen 2018;Conrad and Hilchey 2011;Whitelaw et al 2003).…”

Citizen sociolinguistics: A new method to understand fat talk

“…Research projects that entail collaborations with lay people (citizen scientists) are common in the natural and biological sciences where citizen science has made an enormous and positive contribution to the scaling of data collection efforts [1]. This is especially true when it comes to studies focused on complex or abstract data whose documentation involves advanced reasoning or inferential skills that cannot be reliably outsourced to technology [2]. Abstract data arguably comprise the bulk of that seen in social science research, and yet the adoption of citizen science as a research strategy remains conspicuously absent here [3].…”