May the Force Be with Them: Exploring Strategies to Overcome Challenges of Co-Created Citizen Science

Abstract

Crowd and citizen science projects have been on the rise for more than 20 years, involving citizens in a diversity of scientific projects. While this seems to address the policy-makers’ call for more public engagement, most citizens’ contributions remain limited to low-complexity tasks with minimal decision rights such as data collection, processing or analysis (i.e., they are contributory). Collaborative and co-created projects that leverage citizens’ knowledge at eye level, however, are in the minority, which might be related to specific challenges these projects face (e.g., higher coordination costs and task complexity). Hence, these projects require additional attention from project coordinators and citizens. This paper explores specific challenges to co-created citizen science projects and proposes facilitating strategies for overcoming them based on ten case studies across different scientific fields. Our findings are summarized in propositions and depicted in a conceptual model highlighting the significance of the citizen scientists’ and project coordinators’ skills and attitudes, project-related, as well as contextual factors for successful co-creation. The propositions present a roadmap for future empirical research on citizen science and hold meaningful practical implications for scholars and policy makers interested in exploring the role of citizen science beyond providing inputs to data collection and/or analysis.