Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science

Collins, Stephanie A.; Sullivan, Miriam; Bray, Heather J.

doi:10.22323/2.21070201

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The demonstration of the ECS's reliability is important, as there is a negative stigma around citizen science data [25]. Our results are consistent with prior work that has shown that such data can be of a high quality [26][27][28]. The development and design of the tool likely contributed to its reliability.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes

Butsch Kovacic,

Elshaer,

Baker

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Many youths and young adults have variable environmental health knowledge, limited understanding of their local environment’s impact on their health, and poor environmentally friendly behaviors. We sought to develop and test a tool to reliably capture data, increase environmental health knowledge, and engage youths as citizen scientists to examine and take action on their community’s challenges. The Eyewitness Community Survey (ECS) was developed through several iterations of co-design. Herein, we tested its performance. In Phase I, seven youths audited five 360° photographs. In Phase II, 27 participants works as pairs/trios and audited five locations, typically 7 days apart. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were determined. Changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy were surveyed. Feedback was obtained via focus groups. Intra-rater reliability was in the substantial/near-perfect range, with Phase II having greater consistency. Inter-rater reliability was high, with 42% and 63% of Phase I and II Kappa, respectively, in the substantial/near-perfect range. Knowledge scores improved after making observations (p ≤ 0.032). Participants (85%) reported the tool to be easy/very easy to use, with 70% willing to use it again. Thus, the ECS is a mutually beneficial citizen science tool that rigorously captures environmental data and provides engaging experiential learning opportunities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes

Butsch Kovacic,

Elshaer,

Baker

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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“…This supports evidence that citizen science as a research approach has the potential to actively engage and involve the public at every stage of research, beyond data collection (62). Though evidence shows that the level of involvement and participation of citizen scientists is dependent on the purpose and objective of the project design, type of research question, and available resources (63). The characteristics of citizen science projects also influence the intensity of citizens' engagement, participation and geographical sampling frame (64).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Therefore, in starting a discussion around the ethical, legal and safeguarding issues that might arise as a result of online citizen science projects we are proposing the best practice guideline for mental health citizen science projects (Table 5). The use of a best practice guideline is important in building trust with communities and support for citizen science project designers (63). All the studies included in our review were conducted in highincome countries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best practice guidelines for citizen science in mental health research: systematic review and evidence synthesis

Todowede,

Lewandowski,

Kotera

et al. 2023

Front. Psychiatry

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Partnering with people most affected by mental health problems can transform mental health outcomes. Citizen science as a research approach enables partnering with the public at a substantial scale, but there is scarce guidance on its use in mental health research. To develop best practise guidelines for conducting and reporting research, we conducted a systematic review of studies reporting mental health citizen science research. Documents were identified from electronic databases (n = 10), grey literature, conference proceedings, hand searching of specific journals and citation tracking. Document content was organised in NVIVO using the ten European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) citizen science principles. Best practise guidelines were developed by (a) identifying approaches specific to mental health research or where citizen science and mental health practises differ, (b) identifying relevant published reporting guidelines and methodologies already used in mental health research, and (c) identifying specific elements to include in reporting studies. A total of 14,063 documents were screened. Nine studies were included, from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the United States. Citizen scientists with lived experience of mental health problems were involved in data collection, analysis, project design, leadership, and dissemination of results. Most studies reported against some ECSA principles but reporting against these principles was often unclear and unstated. Best practise guidelines were developed, which identified mental health-specific issues relevant to citizen science, and reporting recommendations. These included citizen science as a mechanism for empowering people affected by mental health problems, attending to safeguarding issues such as health-related advice being shared between contributors, the use of existing health research reporting guidelines, evaluating the benefits for contributors and impact on researchers, explicit reporting of participation at each research stage, naming the citizen science platform and data repository, and clear reporting of consent processes, data ownership, and data sharing arrangements. We conclude that citizen science is feasible in mental health and can be complementary to other participatory approaches. It can contribute to active involvement, engagement, and knowledge production with the public. The proposed guidelines will support the quality of citizen science reporting.

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“…This helps to fill knowledge gaps and provide essential information for decision-making processes, such as policymaking and resource allocation. Second, citizen science fosters public engagement in science, and scientific literacy [11], developing a deeper understanding of scientific concepts and methodologies. on citizen science platforms, they consistently contribute mainly to a select few on a regular basis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Evaluation of Tail Project Boosting in Citizen Science

Sultan,

Segal,

Shani

et al. 2023

Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications

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In citizen science, regular people provide invaluable information by contributing to scientific projects. Citizen science platforms, such as SciStarter, provide easy access to numerous such projects. Often, users contribute mainly to a relatively small set of popular projects, while it is difficult for many projects to draw the attention of users. Thus, increasing the contribution of users to such low-popularity projects may increase scientific and societal impact. In this paper, we explore the power of a recommender system to draw attention to less popular projects. Standard use of recommendation systems often leads to limited exposure of less popular (tail) projects. We thus propose a re-ranking approach based on “lift boosting,” which uses the statistical lift measure to enhance the exposure of tail projects. By combining lift and traditional relevance measures, our method re-ranks the recommendation list to emphasize projects that are both relevant to the user while also have a high lift value. We implement our approach on SciStarter, one of the biggest citizen science platforms on the web. We conduct an online experiment involving over 2000 real users. Our results show a positive shift towards less popular projects without compromising overall contribution rates. This work demonstrates the potential of our lift-boosting method for promoting the discovery of tail projects in citizen science platforms, thereby fostering a more diverse range of scientific contributions.

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Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes

The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes

Best practice guidelines for citizen science in mental health research: systematic review and evidence synthesis

Online Evaluation of Tail Project Boosting in Citizen Science

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