Volunteer researchers in modern science: analysing “Nature” publications

Abstract

The article presents a scientometric analysis of publications on citizen science, i.e., conducted with the participation of non-professional scientists, posted on the portal of the journal Nature, in order to identify the main directions and thematic trends in the field of citizen science over the last 5 years. The article identifies the key thematic clusters to which the reviewed publications belong, and analyses the thematic trends in each of the presented clusters. The search was carried out in English among the publications posted on the portal in the period from 2019 to 2023. The result is presented using computer visualisation and a table of key topics of the reviewed publications; in the future it is planned to expand the study and build a thematic map and scheme of key trends both abroad and in Russia. The analysis shows that the key topics in which volunteer researchers have been involved over the last 5 years have been environmental protection and conservation, publications on biodiversity and climate change, and data analysis in ecology. The authors note a widespread and growing interest in finding scientific volunteers to conduct research, as well as the growing role of volunteer researchers. The participation of non-professional scientists encourages a shift towards interdisciplinary research and promotes the use of different research methodologies. There are trends in the transformation of the role of volunteer researchers from the status of ordinary field researchers to full-fledged participants in research work.