Quality in the Making: Involving Citizens in Humanities Research

Abstract

The quality of information is essential for empirical scientific research. As technological developments enable new and more open forms of organizing and, in particular, the involvement of a growing number of citizens in science, concerns might arise about the quality of citizen contributions. Open participative forms of organizing, such as citizen science, rely on the voluntary nature of citizens’ participation and, as a consequence, involve an a priori uncertainty about the knowledge and availability of participants. In this paper, we take a practice theory approach to investigate how quality is assured in citizen science projects based on a qualitative study in the field of humanities. We identify seven quality assurance mechanisms, we discuss how project leaders make decisions in relation to these mechanisms, and the implications that these choices have for other aspects of the project. We conclude that mechanisms influence each other resulting in trade-offs and different combinations of mechanisms, but they all contribute to a better interpretation of the object of research according to the rules of the field and project.