Since November 2019 the international research project CS Track has been combining traditional social-science methods with web-based and computational analytics in order to systematically survey the field of Citizen Science. Based on our findings, we have now developed a set of 10 policy recommendations which identify key issues to be addressed if we want to further support and promote participatory research in Europe. The goal of these recommendations is to suggest ways in which CS stakeholders (such as project initiators, platform managers or funding agencies) can help maximise the benefit of Citizen Science activities for individual citizens, the scientific community, and society at large.

Continue reading CS Track publishes policy recommendations based on project results at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

We are delighted to announce that the article entitled “Why citizen science cannot answer the question of the democratisation of science” written by Michael Strähle and Christine Urban has been published in the conference proceedings of the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022 (ACSC2022) that took place from 28 – 30 June, 2022 in Dornbirn, Austria. It is a frequent claim that citizen science democratises science. This paper argues that this claim is on shaky ground due to unfounded generalised assumptions about citizen science and unclear notions of democratisation.

Continue reading <strong>Why citizen science cannot answer the question of the democratisation of science</strong> at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

We are delighted to announce that the article entitled “An analytics approach to health and healthcare in citizen science communications on Twitter” written by Fernando Martínez-Martínez, David Roldán-Álvarez, Estefanía Martín, and H Ulrich Hoppe has been published in the Digital Health journal. Their findings suggest that the most addressed topics by Twitter users are sustainable development goals, technologies and health, and COVID-19. Other topics represented in the data are cancer, public health, mental health, and health and well-being of sea and earth-living creatures related to sustainable development goals.

Continue reading CS Track paper published in Digital Health at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

We are delighted to announce that the article entitled “Inclusion and exclusion in citizen science: A matter of context” written by Michael Strähle and Christine Urban has been published in the conference proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2022 that took place from 2-4 May 2022.

Continue reading CS Track paper published in conference proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2022 at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

We are happy to announce that the paper entitled “Identifying learning dimensions in citizen science projects” written by Marius Oesterheld, Vincent Schmid-Loertzer, Miriam Calvera-Isabal, Ishari Amarasinghe, Patricia Santos and Yaela N Golumbic, and the paper entitled “The Activities & Dimensions Grid of Citizen Science” written by Michael Strähle and Christine Urban have been both published in the Conference Proceedings from the Engaging Citizen Science Conference 2022 that took place from 25-26 April 2022 in Aarhus, Denmark!

Continue reading CS Track papers published in Conference Proceedings of the Citizen Science Conference 2022 at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

Online Seminar on Wednesday, 25 January 2023, 14:00 – 15:00 CET

The main mission of the CS Track project has been to observe and analyse the phenomena of citizen science using empirical and theoretical studies. Based on these studies, the team have constructed a set of policy recommendations. Further specific policy recommendations have also been prepared with the stated purpose of directing attention to questions related to Citizen Science that need attention.

Continue reading Recommendations for policy-makers arising from CS Track investigations into Citizen Science, online seminar, 25 January at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

A CS Track team of researchers including Reuma De-Groot, Yaela N Golumbic, Fernando Martínez Martínez and H. Ulrich Hoppe recently published a paper entitled “Developing a framework for investigating Citizen Science through a combination of web analytics and social science methods – the CS Track perspective”. This article presents the project’s framework which aims to complement existing methods for evaluating CS, address gaps in current observations of the citizen science landscape and integrate findings from multiple studies and methodologies.

Continue reading CS Track framework for investigating citizen science at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

We are delighted to announce that the article entitled “Does Volunteer Engagement Pay Off? An Analysis of User Participation in Online Citizen Science Projects” written by our colleagues Simon Krukowski, Ishari Amarasinghe, Nicolás Felipe Gutiérrez-Páez & H. Ulrich Hoppe has been published in CollabTech 2022: Collaboration Technologies and Social Computing. The article is available in English and can be accessed here.

Continue reading CS Track paper on volunteer engagement published in CollabTech 2022 at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

TIME4CS will run an online interactive workshop on 6 December from 10:00 – 12:00 CET about how to contribute to fostering the adoption of citizen science as research methodology within your organization through the use of institutional roadmaps.  

Participants have the chance to: 

• Discuss challenges and opportunities for citizen science in their institution 
• Learn about using institutional roadmaps as a tool for change 
• Co-create their own Grounding Action with the TIME4CS Reflection Tool!

Continue reading TIME4CS’ online event on embedding citizen science in your institution, 6 December at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

The CS Track team members Dr. Yaela Golumbic (The Mofet institute; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel) and Marius Oesterheld (Wissenschaft im Dialog, Germany) have recently published a ten-step guide to writing citizen science project descriptions that spark interest and attract volunteers. Over the past 18 months, several research groups within the CS Track consortium have analysed project descriptions stored in the CS Track database from different perspectives (focusing for instance on research area, correlation with the SDG framework, educational aspects etc.).

Continue reading How to write an engaging citizen science project description at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.