Improving a framework for evaluating participatory science

Abstract

This article proposes improvements to an open framework for evaluating participatory science, including projects framed as citizen science. An original proposed framework, while valuable in its comprehensiveness, used problematic language that makes it unworkable in many international contexts. In countries like Australia where Indigenous data sovereignty matters profoundly, language about ‘target groups’ and ‘easing access’ to knowledge can harmfully perpetuate colonial discourses. The original proposed framework is sufficiently useful that it is worth constructively revising, so critique in this article is aimed towards collaborative progression of an open framework more suitable for international use. As well as replacing ‘target groups’ with partnership approaches, we argue that ‘easing access’ to knowledge for exploitation is a frame perpetuating the colonial doctrine of discovery, proposing recovery as an alternative aligned with several international movements for social justice and sustainability.