The Accuracy of Citizen Science Data: A Quantitative Review

Aceves‐Bueno, Eréndira; Adeleye, Adeyemi S.; Feraud, Marina; Huang, Yuxiong; Tao, Mengya; Yang, Yi; Anderson, Sarah

doi:10.1002/bes2.1336

Cited by 240 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

160

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous studies of other organisms have found that research using data from citizen scientists produced results that were comparable F I G U R E 2 Land cover with small ape observations reported in social media or submitted directly by citizen scientists. Most sightings were inside forested areas near to roads for all three species of small apes with researcher-generated data (Aceves-Bueno et al, 2017;Horns et al, 2018aHorns et al, , 2018bSchuttler et al, 2019 Our results indicate that visitors to Malaysian forests notice small apes and that at least some of them value these encounters enough to post them on social media when they occur. Encouragingly, we found reliable reports of small ape sightings by citizen scientists in almost all states in Peninsular Malaysia, and the reports spanned most of the reported geographic distribution for each small ape taxon.…”

Section: Comparison and Critiquementioning

confidence: 62%

“…Previous studies of other organisms have found that research using data from citizen scientists produced results that were comparable with researcher‐generated data (Aceves‐Bueno et al, 2017; Horns et al, 2018a, 2018b; Schuttler et al, 2019). Small apes typically travel in the middle or upper forest canopy, and most small apes in Malaysia have a dark pelage, making them quite difficult to photograph.…”

Section: Comparison and Critiquementioning

confidence: 73%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Are social media reports useful for assessing small ape occurrence? A pilot study from Peninsular Malaysia

Rameli

Lappan

Bartlett

et al. 2020

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Citizen science‐based research has been used effectively to estimate animal abundance and breeding patterns, to monitor animal movement, and for biodiversity conservation and education. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of using social media observations to assess the distribution of small apes in Peninsular Malaysia. We searched for reports of small ape observations in Peninsular Malaysia on social media (e.g., blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, iNaturalist, etc.), and also used online, radio, print messaging, and word of mouth to invite citizen scientists such as birders, amateur naturalists, hikers, and other members of the public to provide information about small ape observations made during their activities. These reports provided new information about the occurrence of all three species of small apes (Hylobates agilis, Hylobates lar, and Symphalangus syndactylus) in Peninsular Malaysia. Social media users reported observations of small apes in almost every state. Despite the fact that small apes are believed to occur primarily in the interior of large forested areas, most observations were from fairly small (<100 km2) forests near areas of high traffic and high human population (roads and urban areas). This suggests that most outdoor enthusiasts primarily visit well‐traveled and easily accessible areas, which results in biased sampling if only incidental observations reported on social media are used. A more targeted approach specifically soliciting reports from citizen scientists visiting large, less‐accessible forests may result in better sampling in these habitats. Social media reports indicated the presence of small apes in at least six habitats where they had not been previously reported. We verified the reported data based on whether reports included a date, location, and uploaded photographs, videos and/or audio recordings. Well‐publicized citizen science programs may also build awareness and enthusiasm about the conservation of vulnerable wildlife species.

show abstract

Section: Comparison and Critiquementioning

confidence: 62%

Section: Comparison and Critiquementioning

confidence: 73%

Are social media reports useful for assessing small ape occurrence? A pilot study from Peninsular Malaysia

Rameli

Lappan

Bartlett

et al. 2020

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While few would argue about the educational and public outreach benefits of citizen science projects, the usefulness of the data they generate is less certain. Systematic analysis of ecological citizen science projects shows that in many cases, volunteers produce data that are so flawed as to be analytically useless (e.g., Aceves-Bueno et al 2017;Mac-Donald 2018).…”

Section: Crowd-sourced Discoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Global-Scale Archaeological Prospection using CORONA Satellite Imagery: Automated, Crowd-Sourced, and Expert-led Approaches

Casana

2020

Journal of Field Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Declassified CORONA satellite imagery, collected from 1960-1972 as part of the world's first intelligence satellite program, provides nearly global, high-resolution, stereo imagery that predates many of the land-use changes seen in recent decades, and thus has proven to be an immensely valuable resource for archaeological research. While challenges involved in spatially correcting these unusual panoramic film images has long served as a stumbling block to researchers, an online tool called "Sunspot" now offers a straightforward process for efficient and accurate orthorectification of CORONA, helping to unlock the potential of this historical imagery for globalscale archaeological prospection. With these new opportunities come significant new challenges in how best to search through large imagery datasets like that offered by CORONA. In contrast to currently popular trends in archaeological remote sensing that seek to employ either automated, machine learning-based approaches, or alternatively, crowd-sourced approaches to assist in the identification of ancient sites and features, this paper argues for systematic, intensive, and expertled "brute force" methods. Results from a project that has sought to map all sites and related features across a large study in the northern Fertile Crescent illustrate how an expert-led analysis may be the best means of generating nuanced, contextual understandings of complex archaeological landscapes.

show abstract

“…The staff gauge approach was developed as an intuitive approach to collect water level data, so that many citizen scientists would be able to contribute. Such a simple approach is often recommended to citizen science project initiators (Aceves-Bueno et al, 2017). Many other citizen science projects, such as CrowdHydrology and iNaturalist, also chose a data collection method that is deliberately kept easy so that citizen scientists do not require training in advance (Gaddis, 2018;Lowry et al, 2019).…”

Section: Does the Crowdwater Game Help Participants To Place A Staff mentioning

confidence: 99%

Training citizen scientists through an online game developed for data quality control

Strobl¹,

Etter²,

Meerveld³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Some form of training is often necessary in citizen science projects. While in many citizen science projects it is possible to keep tasks simple so that training requirements are minimal, some projects include more challenging tasks and, thus, require more extensive training. Training can hinder joining a project, and therefore most citizen science projects prefer to keep training requirements low. However, training may be needed to ensure good data quality. In this study, we evaluated 10 if an online game that was originally developed for data quality control in a citizen science project, can be used for training for that project. More specifically, we investigated whether the CrowdWater game can be used to train new participants on how to use the virtual staff gauge in the CrowdWater smartphone app for the collection of water level class data. Within this app, the task of placing a virtual staff gauge to start measurements at a new location has proven to be challenging; however this is a crucial task for all subsequent measurements at this location. We analysed the performance of 52 participants in the 15 placement of the virtual staff gauge before and after playing the online CrowdWater game as a form of training. After playing the game, the performance improved for most participants. This suggests that players learned project related tasks intuitively by observing actual gauge placements by other citizen scientists and thus acquired knowledge about how to best use the app instinctively. Interestingly, self-assessment was not a good proxy for the participants' performance or performance increase.These results demonstrate the value of an online game for training, particularly when compared to other information materials, 20 which are often not used extensively by citizen scientist. These findings are useful for the development of training strategies for other citizen science projects because they indicate that gamified approaches might provide valuable alternative training methods.

show abstract

The Accuracy of Citizen Science Data: A Quantitative Review

Cited by 240 publications

References 39 publications

Are social media reports useful for assessing small ape occurrence? A pilot study from Peninsular Malaysia

Are social media reports useful for assessing small ape occurrence? A pilot study from Peninsular Malaysia

Global-Scale Archaeological Prospection using CORONA Satellite Imagery: Automated, Crowd-Sourced, and Expert-led Approaches

Training citizen scientists through an online game developed for data quality control

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About