Participation In Citizen Science Projects Research Articles

Citizen science as interdisciplinary working

Citizen science is a growing trend in involving the public in different types of collaboration with scientists. The growth of this activity has consequences for data collection, data analysis and the way in which science is carried out. It also has a potential impact on what, and how, citizen scientists learn about science when engaged in such activities. The purpose of this research is to explore the practices adopted by participants in citizen science projects, and in particular the influence on learning for the participants in these projects which rely on technology to support collaboration. The growth of citizen science projects is occurring at the same time as a growth of interest in informal learning and both are supported by technology enhanced learning. To make best use of the rapidly growing area of citizen science in the development of learning, it needs to be studied as a newly developing interdisciplinary area, with the consequence of unravelling the mechanisms by which interdisciplinary collaboration takes place in these settings, and the identification of conditions which encourage or thwart learning.

Enhancing Astronomical Literacy In Maritime Navigation: Impact Of Social Media and Citizen Science

This study investigates the influence of social media and citizen science initiatives on astronomical literacy and its application in maritime navigation among transportation cadets. Through qualitative research methods, including interviews and observational studies, the perceptions and practices of 40 cadets at a transportation institute in Jakarta were explored. The findings reveal that social media platforms play a significant role in enhancing navigational knowledge and skills among cadets, providing access to diverse educational resources and fostering engagement with astronomical content. Similarly, participation in citizen science projects positively impacts astronomical literacy, offering hands-on learning experiences that reinforce theoretical knowledge. Moreover, the research highlights the importance of promoting cultural competence in maritime education to prepare cadets for navigating in multicultural environments. By aligning educational curricula with international standards and embracing emerging technologies, educational institutions can better equip transportation cadets with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in the globalised maritime industry.

Place-Keeping in the Park: Testing a Living Lab Approach to Facilitate Nature Connectedness in Urban Greenspaces

Green infrastructure, particularly public greenspaces such as urban parks, plays an important role in urban environments, and improving public participation in greenspace practices and encouraging environmental stewardship can help to address some of the challenges of greenspace governance. We identify a gap in the research as to whether participation in citizen science projects can enhance connections between people and place and encourage better community participation in the stewardship of parks and urban greenspaces. The research adopts a Living Lab approach to utilise the inherent knowledge of the local community in developing digital experiments in the pilot site using a Nature Data Probe toolkit and seeks to explore its potential for enhancing nature connectedness by revealing hidden nature. We describe an action research method working with participants from a secondary school located close to a large urban park in Plymouth, UK. The results found that participants were more observant of hidden nature following the workshop and that an increase in the number of participants, and in the specific and descriptive responses identifying nature, was observed. These findings indicate that a deeper awareness of the natural environment was created and, in summary, we discuss the implications of this as a pathway to increased participation in greenspace governance.

Technological Affordance and the Realities of Citizen Science Projects Developed in Challenging Territories

Citizen science has established itself as an important approach to the co-production of knowledge and public participation in scientific research. Combined with digital technologies and online tools, the approach has been celebrated as a path toward the democratization of science. However, only a few studies have investigated the role digital technologies play in shaping interactions between people and nature. Additionally, the role of context in shaping online and face-to-face participation in citizen science projects has yet to receive much attention. This article takes a citizen science initiative in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo as an illustrative case of the emergence of unanticipated consequences of digital technologies. The emergence of a socio-material practice of animal identification through a popular instant-messaging app is described, allowing a better understanding of the role of digital technologies and the context framing citizen participation in challenging environments.

Citizen Science: Schoolteachers’ Motivation, Experiences, and Recommendations

Citizen science offers teachers a way to bring authentic scientific research into their classrooms by providing both teachers and their students with opportunities to contribute to authentic research. The potential of citizen science for science education has already been highlighted in various fields and by various stakeholders. More and more studies underpin this potential by providing evidence for the learning outcomes achieved through participation in citizen science projects. In formal education settings, teachers are the gatekeepers for teaching innovations and, hence, the ones who decide whether to engage students in citizen science. However, the expertise of teachers who have already participated in citizen science with their students has not been studied on a broad international level. Therefore, to investigate their experience and learn from their expertise, this study employed a concurrent triangulation design and invited teachers to participate in a survey (N = 56) and an interview (N = 11), independent of their country of residence, their school type, and their teaching subject. The results provide insights into teachers’ motivation, the engagement techniques and types of activities they used, the challenges they faced, and their recommendations for implementing citizen science in formal education settings. The present findings have important implications for the design of professional development programmes and support networks for teachers in citizen science.

Promoting pro-environmental behavior through citizen science? A case study with Chilean schoolchildren on marine plastic pollution

Plastic marine debris (PMD) polluting marine habitats is a pressing anthropogenic global environmental problem and its reduction requires the commitment of government and industry, and the collaboration of the public. Environmental citizen science projects (CSPs) have flourished and are widely regarded as having positive effects on participants’ knowledge, perception and behavior. This study examines how participation in a CSP on PMD, which included a scientific sampling of PMD on local beaches, affected Chilean schoolchildren’s (9–18 years) problem perception and personal involvement, including self-reported behavior. A pretest-posttest design was used, with an experimental group (CSP participants, n = 494) and a control group (n = 318). Educational and behavioral effects of the intervention were assessed using items based on the norm activation model. Both groups showed high initial problem perception and involvement regarding PMD. A mixed model multivariate analysis of variance revealed that engagement in the CSP did not result in significant changes of almost all dependent variables, except for a small positive effect on ascription of harm. Age substantially affected the outcomes and was included as a covariate. The findings suggest that pro-environmental behavior change cannot be expected from participation in environmental CSPs alone; it requires the incorporation of auxiliary educational activities in the project design specifically conceptualized for targeting this learning objective.

Decolonizing Digital Citizen Science: Applying the Bridge Framework for Climate Change Preparedness and Adaptation

Research has historically exploited Indigenous communities, particularly in the medical and health sciences, due to the dominance of discriminatory colonial systems. In many regions across Canada and worldwide, historical and continued injustices have worsened health among Indigenous Peoples. Global health crises such as climate change are most adversely impacting Indigenous communities, as their strong connection to the land means that even subtle changes in the environment can disproportionately affect local food and health systems. As we explore strategies for climate change preparedness and adaptation, Indigenous Peoples have a wealth of Traditional Knowledge to tackle specific climate and related health issues. If combined with digital citizen science, data collection by citizens within a community could provide relevant and timely information about specific jurisdictions. Digital devices such as smartphones, which have widespread ownership, can enable equitable participation in citizen science projects to obtain big data for mitigating and managing climate change impacts. Informed by a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, a decolonized lens to digital citizen science can advance climate change adaptation and preparedness efforts. This paper describes the ‘Bridge Framework’ for decolonizing digital citizen science using a case study with a subarctic Indigenous community in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Walking on the Sea Traces: Developing a platform to bring Ocean Literacy and Citizen Science at Home

We describe the process of the development of a citizen science platform on Ocean Literacy designed and implemented during the lockdown period of 2020. As restrictions due to the COVID-19 health emergency did not allow researchers to organise public events and field data collection activities related to Ocean Literacy, we decided to take advantage of this situation by building an online platform to bring Ocean Literacy issues directly into citizens' homes. The massive use of digital tools by all civic communities during this time has allowed us to implement this idea and make it effective. The pandemic control measures then provided a unique opportunity to focus citizen attention on the collection of household data and information and to highlight the more or less direct connections between citizens' lifestyles and the eco-marine system. Short questionnaires were used to ascertain and highlight citizens' household behaviours and daily attitudes during the lockdown towards water use, seafood consumption and plastic material use and disposal. Data and information were also proposed, collected and analyzed in terms of: general environmental awareness of the respondents, perception regarding their purchasing choices during this particular period, as well as any changes in lifestyles and habits during the lockdown with respect to previous periods. The collected data allow us to improve our knowledge on some aspects of people domestic habits as well as their perception vs. real knowledge about the proposed environmental issues. We also realized that it is increasingly crucial for scientists to directly and extensively involve people and schools in educational and outreach activities and events as a good practice of science-society interaction. But to achieve good results we also need to develop appropriate communication tools and effective involvement strategies to promote their widespread participation in citizen science projects.

ГРОМАДЯНСЬКА НАУКА І МОНІТОРИНГ ДОВКІЛЛЯ: СВІТОВІ ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ, СИТУАЦІЯ В УКРАЇНІ

The aim of the study was to characterize the main trends in the development of citizen science (CS), which has been attracting growing interest from society since the beginning of the 21st century, which is associated with the development of digital technologies, and the ability to connect to the Internet. According to the Oxford Dictionary, “Citizenship Science is the collection and analysis of data related to the natural world by members of the general public, usually as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists “. This movement has had significant activity in the countries of Western Europe, the USA, Australia, and in the last decade in China. An analysis of completed projects shows that citizen science has the greatest impact on research in the field of biology, ecology, and solutions to environmental problems and is mainly used for collecting and classifying data. The accuracy of the data obtained by CS representatives depends on the proper organization of research and requires constant monitoring and cooperation with professional scientists. Citizens’ motivation to participate in research can also influence the results of CS projects. Three general aspects are highlighted as motivation for participation in CS: a) raising the individual scientific and educational level and the desire to increase public awareness; b) filling gaps in government monitoring and identifying local problems; c) harnessing scientific knowledge to inform policymakers and decision-makers and ensuring consistency of actions at different scales. An important area of research in citizen science is monitoring the quality of water in water bodies, as evidenced by more than 800 works published during 2010-2020. In periodicals indexed by the Web of Science. It is relevant to involve representatives of citizen science in solving the tasks facing SDG 6 “Clean water and adequate sanitation”, one of the 17 global goals that were adopted at the UN Summit on Sustainable Development (2015) for the period 2015-2030. The participation of citizen science can be significant in the context of SDG 6.3.2 “Identifying the proportion of water bodies with good water quality”, as these studies relate to the monitoring of water bodies at the community level. The FreshWater Watch program, launched in 2012, is based on the continuous monitoring of freshwater bodies. The program has both a global and a local level. Global level – citizen scientists in different countries participating in the program work according to the same methods and register a common set of parameters that are loaded into the same database. Local level – working with local groups and scientists who have scientific questions about their specific water bodies. Thus, using global approaches, it is possible to answer local questions about water quality and the state of ecosystems. In Ukraine, the situation with citizen science is fundamentally different from that described above. There is no citizen science in the same form as in the countries of Western Europe, North America, Australia, and East Asia in Ukraine. This is connected both with the general economic situation of the country and, accordingly, the constant reduction of scientific institutions, a decrease in the interest of citizens in science and with moral and ethical aspects (from the skepticism of professional Ukrainian scientists regarding the activities of representatives of citizen science to the unwillingness of broad strata of citizens to spend their time on work in CS projects). But on Facebook (FB) there are groups of biological, hydrological, and geological orientations in Ukraine, which have their own sites in FB and carry out certain work. Ukraine’s integration into the structure of the European Union will contribute to the emergence of new opportunities for further development of civil society, including participation in citizen science projects.

Interfacing participation in citizen science projects with conversational agents

This paper assesses the use of conversational agents (chatbots) as an interface to enhance communication with participants in citizen science projects. After developing a study of the engagement and motivations to interact with chatbots, we explored our results. We based our analysis on the current needs exposed in citizen science literature to assess the opportunities. We found that chatbots are great communication platforms that can help to engage participants as an all-in-one interface. Chatbots can benefit projects in reducing the need for developing an exclusive app while it can be deployed on several platforms. Finally, we establish design suggestions to help citizen science practitioners to incorporate such platforms to new projects. We encourage the development of more advanced interfaces through the incorporation of Machine Learning to several processes.

Reliability of Data Collected by Volunteers: A Nine-Year Citizen Science Study in the Red Sea

The quality of data collected by non-professional volunteers in citizen science programs is crucial to render them valid for implementing environmental resources management and protection plans. This study assessed the reliability of data collected by non-professional volunteers during the citizen science project Scuba Tourism for the Environment (STE), carried out in mass tourism facilities of the Red Sea between 2007 and 2015. STE involved 16,164 volunteer recreational divers in data collection on marine biodiversity using a recreational citizen science approach. Through a specifically designed questionnaire, volunteers indicated which of the seventy-two marine taxa surveyed were observed during their recreational dive, giving an estimate of their abundance. To evaluate the validity of the collected data, a reference researcher randomly dived with the volunteers and filled in the project questionnaire separately. Correlation analyses between the records collected by the reference researcher and those collected by volunteers were performed based on 513 validation trials, testing 3,138 volunteers. Data reliability was analyzed through 7 parameters. Consistency showed the lowest mean score (51.6%, 95% Confidence Interval CI 44.1–59.2%), indicating that volunteers could direct their attention to different taxa depending on personal interests; Percent Identified showed the highest mean score (66.7%, 95% CI 55.5–78.0), indicating that volunteers can correctly identify most surveyed taxa. Overall, results confirmed that the recreational citizen science approach can effectively support reliable data for biodiversity monitoring, when carefully tailored for the volunteer skills required by the specific project. The use of a recreational approach enhances massive volunteer participation in citizen science projects, thus increasing the amount of sufficiently reliable data collected in a reduced time.

Participation in Citizen Science: Insights from the CONECT-e Case Study

Citizen science (CS) is growing quickly, given its potential to enhance knowledge coproduction by diverse participants, generating large and global data sets. However, uneven participation in CS is still an important concern. This work aims to understand (1) participation dynamics in CS and (2) how they are shaped by participation barriers and drivers. We do so by examining participation in CONECT-e, a CS project that uses a wiki-like platform to document traditional ecological knowledge. More precisely, we analyze quantitative data on participants’ profile and activity patterns and qualitative data on barriers and drivers of participation. Our findings suggest that overcoming the education, age, and residence participation barriers is challenging even in cocreated CS projects. This is potentially due to issues of perceived self-illegitimacy and low access to information and communication technologies. Our results also point out that participants’ alliance with the project’s objectives and trust relationships with the project team are important drivers of participation in CS projects. Finally, we also highlight the need to think beyond participation as single actions and rather consider participation diversity in CS as functional diversity in ecosystems, with participants performing a diverse set of interconnected tasks or functions.

Smartphone citizen science for turtles: identifying motives, usage patterns and reasons why citizens stop participating

ABSTRACT Citizen science has become popular for data collection in ecology and environmental management. However, most participants in citizen science projects are only involved for a short period of time. Understanding the reasons behind this dropout rate is important for improving long term participation. Here we investigated participation rates in TurtleSAT, an Australian turtle mapping app aimed at collecting data useful for conservation efforts. First, we looked at the TurtleSAT database to examine the number of participants and how many sightings each had uploaded. Then, we distributed an online questionnaire to all TurtleSAT participants and asked what inspired them to participate, if they found the app easy to use, and whether they were still active in the project. Out of 75 respondents, 21 said they were currently not active participants. Their reasons for not participating anymore included lack of time, technical issues, and a perception of high turtle abundance that indicated conservation efforts are unnecessary. The motives that originally inspired their participation were not significantly linked to them leaving the project. We propose possible solutions to some of the issues identified, such as offering online tutorials and a hotline to solve technical issues, a more direct link from the TurtleSAT app to news and academic articles regarding turtles, and establishing an online forum to maintain engagement.

Eco-Citizen Science for Social Good: Promoting Child Well-Being, Environmental Justice, and Inclusion

This article examines the benefits and challenges of engaging children in environmental citizen science, defined as science conducted by nonspecialists under the direction of professional scientists, to promote social good. Citizen science addresses two central elements of the social good model—environmental justice and inclusion with particular attention to diversity in age, gender, race/ethnicity, and social class in addressing environmental injustice that is more prevalent in underrepresented communities. This article evaluates how participation in citizen science projects focused on the environment (eco-citizen science) benefits the child’s development, contributes to science, and leads to commitment to environmental stewardship and justice as adults. Our work offers a novel contribution to the discourse on social good and social justice through explicitly calling for children to be included in environmental citizen science projects. We examine the benefits and challenges of involving children in scientific projects and discuss implications for policy, practice, and future research.

A Study of Student Responses to Participation in Online Citizen Science Projects

In this study, students enrolled in a basic physics class participated in one of the online citizen science projects available on the Zooniverse website (www.zooniverse.org) as a homework assignment. They then wrote a 300–500-word reflection about their experience addressing several questions given as prompts. The analysis of the responses showed that a majority of the students enjoyed the experience saying that it was interesting, fun, and accessible. Many responses described a part of their science ideas that were either confirmed or changed by the experience. The science ideas included statements about looking for correlations among many data, the need to observe these data in order to find correlations, and the inherent uncertainty of the task and the data themselves. The ideas about science and scientific research expressed were in line with a competent view of science (Lederman, Handbook of Research on Science Education, 2, 831–879, Lederman, 2007; McComas et al., Science & Education, 7(6), 511–532, McComas, Almazroa & Clough, 1998). The insight given by this study is that participation in a citizen science project can be educationally beneficial in learning about aspects of the nature of science.

Exploring the impact of game framing and task framing on user participation in citizen science projects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how game framing and task framing influence experienced meaningfulness (eudaimonia) and perceived enjoyment (hedonia), which, in turn, can account for user participation behavior in citizen science projects. Design/methodology/approach The authors designed and implemented a citizen science system, Citizen Sort, and used a survey method to investigate to what extent game framing and task framing influence participation behavior. PLS–SEM was used to test research hypotheses with 76 Citizen Sort participants. Findings Analysis confirmed that game framing and task framing have a significant impact on perceived enjoyment, but showed that only task framing has a direct effect on experienced meaningfulness. The effects of experienced meaningfulness on participation were fully mediated by perceived enjoyment. Content analysis of qualitative data revealed additional insights. Research limitations/implications This research is limited due to its sample size and considered as an exploratory study, in which PLS–SEM was used to identify the impact of game framing and task framing as well as support the theory development regarding the dual nature of citizen science games. Practical implications This research provided suggestions for scientists, designers and project initiators that game framing and task framing should be effectively integrated to provide enjoyable and meaningful experiences so as to promote user contribution. Originality/value This research is one of initial studies which explored the impact of dual nature of citizen science games. The findings of this study provide the groundwork for guidelines and strategies to facilitate user contribution in citizen science projects.

Citizen Scientists’ Preferences for Communication of Scientific Output: A Literature Review

Many citizen science developers agree that participants in citizen science projects need to receive feedback on project outputs and that they should be recognized in results and publications. However, little research has thoroughly investigated the extent to which citizen scientists find communication of scientific output to be important. Citizen science studies rarely investigate this topic as their main goal. Therefore, we conducted a review on participants’ preferences for communication of data, findings, and scientific publications in papers that focus on participant motivation but which also contain relevant evidence about communication in parts of the results. We reviewed 32 peer-reviewed papers that contained relevant evidence in quantitative analyses (e.g., Likert scale-type questions) or in qualitative analyses (e.g., interviews with participants). From this review, we conclude that participants value accessibility of their collected data, communication of project findings, and acknowledgement in publications. Taking this into account can pay off, as sharing data and findings can enhance the motivation of participants to engage in the project, thereby sustaining their participation, imparting the feeling that they spent their time well, and increasing a project’s learning impact. Some practical and ethical issues such as privacy concerns, however, need to be taken into account. This literature review is the first to provide an overview of citizen scientists’ preferences for communication of scientific output, and is a starting point for further research that should investigate the impact of different options for data sharing and communication of findings to participants.

Assessing Citizen Science Participation Skill for Altruism or University Course Credit: A Case Study Analysis Using Cyclone Center

A common challenge in citizen science projects is gaining and retaining participants. At the same time, the tertiary education sector is constantly being challenged to provide more meaningful and practical work for students. Can participation in citizen science projects be used as coursework with real practical experiential-learning benefits, without affecting the citizen science project outcomes? We seek to begin to answer this question via a case study analysis with Cyclone Center (CC), which asks participants to classify tropical cyclone characteristics through analysis of infrared satellite imagery. Skill of individual users has previously been shown to be obtainable once classifiers have looked at approximately 200 images using an expectation-maximisation likelihood approach. We use skill scores to determine if participation for course credit or altruism influenced skill for volunteers and students from two universities under three increasingly complex categories of classifications (eye or no eye; stronger, weaker, or the same; and which of six fundamental storm types). A bootstrap resampling approach was used to account for discrepancies between sample sizes. Overall, there is limited evidence for substantive differences in classification performance between credit awarded and altruistic participants, with only one finding of significance at

Birding, Citizen Science, and Wildlife Conservation in Sociological Perspective

AbstractSociological research on wildlife typically looks at how nonhuman animals in the wild are hunted, poached, or captured for entertainment, or how they play a symbolic role in people’s lives. Within sociology, little research exists on how people appreciate nonhuman animals in the wild, and how people contribute to wildlife conservation. I explore birding-related citizen science projects in theUS. Citizen science refers to scientific projects carried out by amateurs. Literature on citizen science focuses on the perspective of professional scientists, with the assumption that only professional scientists are concerned with the quality of data from citizen science projects. The research showed birders share this skepticism, but they still find satisfaction in participating in citizen science projects. This paper contributes to sociological understandings of wildlife conservation by showing how birders’ participation in citizen science projects helps professional scientists study environmental problems such as climate change and its effects on wildlife.

Appealing to different motivations in a message to recruit citizen scientists: results of a field experiment

This study examines the relative efficacy of citizen science recruitment messages appealing to four motivations that were derived from previous research on motives for participation in citizen-science projects. We report on an experiment (N=36,513) that compared the response to email messages designed to appeal to these four motives for participation. We found that the messages appealing to the possibility of contributing to science and learning about science attracted more attention than did one about helping scientists but that one about helping scientists generated more initial contributions. Overall, the message about contributing to science resulted in the largest volume of contributions and joining a community, the lowest. The results should be informative to those managing citizen-science projects.