Abstract
In response to the need for approaches to understand how citizen science is currently influencing environmental policy and associated decision making, we devised the Citizen Science Impact StoryTelling Approach (CSISTA). We iteratively designed instruments to be used as tools primarily for citizen science practitioners seeking to understand or communicate policy impacts. We then trialled the CSISTA and associated instruments on four exemplary citizen science initiatives, using different forms of inquiry and collaboration with respective initiative leaders. In this paper, we present CSISTA, with details of the steps for implementing inquiry and storytelling instruments. Additionally, we reflect on insights gained and challenges encountered implementing the approach. Overall, we found the versatility and structure of CSISTA as a process with multiple guiding instruments useful. We envision the approach being helpful, particularly with regards to: 1) gaining an understanding of a citizen science initiative's policy and decision-making impacts; 2) creating short policy impact stories to communicate such impacts to broader audiences; or 3) fulfilling both goals to understand and communicate policy impacts with a unified approach. We encourage others to explore, adapt, and improve the approach. Additionally, we hope that explorations of CSISTA will foster broader discussions on how to understand and strengthen interactions between citizen science practitioners, policy makers, and decision makers at large, whether at local, national, or international scales.
Highlights
The main aim of this paper is to present and reflect on the development and piloting of the Citizen Science Impact Storytelling Approach (CSISTA) with citizen science practitioners in order to capture and communicate current and emerging citizen science impacts on policy
The limited understanding of the policy needs and processes within the citizen science community has created a knowledge gap in how to communicate with policy makers and other stakeholders, such as funders, scientists and volunteers, about the impacts of citizen science and citizen observatories in a way that resonates with the policy com munity
This shows that further advances are needed to turn the evolving metrics or instruments into actionable insights through impact stories that could demonstrate the value of citizen science to policy makers, funders, future initiatives, and other stakeholders
Summary
While some definitions focus more on citizen science as a tool for collection and analysis of data (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary 2014), others define it as a multi-stakeholder process that aims at increasing democratization of science and policy, scientific citizenship, public engagement, transparency, equity, inclusiveness and justice Recent studies show that citizen science offers great potential to address data gaps for global initiatives too, such as the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Develop ment Goals (SDGs). These data are crucial for providing decision makers with accurate insights on where more resources and policy changes or improvements are needed (Fraisl et al, 2020; Ajates et al, 2020; Fritz et al, 2019). Capturing the policy impacts of citizen sci ence initiatives remains difficult
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