Citizen science (CS) projects encompass a variety of different disciplines (e.g. health, biology, education). However, it is not clear whether volunteers’ working i.e. professional discipline is related to the discipline of their selected project.
Important notice
We would like to inform that this project is inactive since December 2022. As a result, the content presented on this website is static, which means it cannot be updated, and no new information will be added. Consequently, interactive features such as the search function, or subscription and commenting capabilities are unavailable.
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8 recommendations for institutions looking to support citizen science initiatives
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.
How to improve citizen science projects?
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.
CS Track publishes policy recommendations based on project results
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...
CS Track paper published in Digital Health
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...
CS Track paper published in conference proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2022
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...
CS Track papers published in Conference Proceedings of the Citizen Science Conference 2022
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...
Mapping Sustainable Development Goals to Citizen Science projects
Main aim of the study This work presents opportunities, achievements, and future challenges in using computational analytics to better understand the connection between CS and the SDGs. The work in its status does not fully cover SDGs in CS, but it evaluates and shows...
CS Track paper on volunteer engagement published in CollabTech 2022
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...
TIME4CS’ online event on embedding citizen science in your institution, 6 December
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. ...
How to write an engaging citizen science project description
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...
Citizen Science Community meets in force in Berlin
The biannual ECSA conference organised under the theme Citizen Science for Planetary Health got off to a great start in Berlin on 5 October with a welcome reception in the Museum of Natural History. The surroundings, dominated by dinosaurs and other fossils was a fine...
Coming to terms with the multiple possible meanings of the term CS. The Activities-Dimensions-Grid of Citizen Science, online seminar, 8 December
Online Workshop on Thursday, 8 December 2022, 14:00 – 15:00 CET Explanation of the grid. How it was developed and why., e. g. voluntary work versus influencing policies versus education versus making. How to place a CS activity. Obvious differences in potential...
What are the most pressing concerns of those working with Citizen Science in a post-pandemic world – an interview with Gitte Kragh
Gitte Kragh is a postdoc at Aarhus University, ecologist at NORDECO, co-founder of the Danish Citizen Science Network, and a Board member of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA).
ECSA 2022, 5-8 October, Berlin, Germany
The ECSA Conference 2022 will be held from October 5-8 in Berlin, Germany. This year researchers from all disciplines, scientists, practitioners, activists, funders, policymakers, non-governmental organizations, artists, and other interested citizens worldwide...
Integrating Open and Citizen Science into Higher Education, 31 August, Leiden, the Netherlands
INOS project is organizing a workshop at Leiden University on 31 August to share the resources they developed, for integrating citizen science and open science into higher education institutions and libraries. This workshop aims to share these results with library and...
Understanding the nature of Citizen Science in a rapidly changing world, half-day symposium, 8 October, Berlin
CS Track and ECSA teams are organising a half-day symposium under the theme "Understanding the nature of Citizen Science in a rapidly changing world" on 8 October, 9:00-13:00 CET in Berlin. This symposium aims at sharing these results and findings and discussing their...
How does the Citizen Science community use hashtags when discussing e-Health?
We analysed 17,122 Citizen Science tweets filtered with Health keywords in order to answer the following questions: What are the most used hashtags in the e-Health discussion? Are hashtags normally used alone or alongside others on the same theme?
How are tweets distributed for each Sustainable Development Goal within the Citizen Science Twitter community?
In this article, we analysed linkages between tweets and SDGs in our dataset by means of classification algorithms. In addition, the network of retweets for each SDG is provided.
SDG discussion in the Citizen Science community of Twitter
Through this Twitter analysis it was possible to demonstrate that some SDGs are much more discussed than others among the Citizen Science community of Twitter.
The importance of the few – how a minority of power users shape most of the discourse in CS forums
Analysing the discourse in discussion forums of CS projects can help to understand underlying patterns of collaborative knowledge creation and to identify highly engaged users. We ask the question: What can the quantitative analysis of forum data tell us about these patterns?
Describing your citizen science project – How to present your project and recruit volunteers, online workshop, 7 July
Online Workshop on Thursday, 7 July 2022, 14:00 – 15:30 CET In this installment of our webinar series, CS Track researchers will share tips and tricks for writing informative and engaging project descriptions and analyse concrete examples (both positive and negative)...
Expert interviews highlight citizen science benefits, pitfalls and caveats
The CS Track research team, led by partners Christine Urban and Michael Strähle from the Wissenschaftsladen Wien – Science Shop Vienna, has published a report called Conceptual Framework for Analytics Tools.
Citizen science to inspire educators – The importance of metadata and open data, online workshop, 14 June
Online Workshop on Tuesday, 14 June 2022, 14:00 – 15:30 CET Social media and online platforms are used by citizen science projects to share information about their work, how to participate, and motivate citizens to join them but also as a research tool. CS Track is...
Citizen Science Conference (hybrid), 12 May, Enschede, the Netherlands
Societal impact is increasingly central to scientific research. How does new knowledge contribute to solving major issues in society? And how can we gain knowledge that is actually beneficial for society? Scientists are motivated to put their knowledge into practice,...
CS Track contributes to a special Horizon Magazine issue on citizen science
CS Track coordinator, Raul Drachman, recently contributed to an article about measuring the impact of citizen science published in a special Horizon Magazine issue. In this article, he shared his observations that are based on CS Track project findings including...
Science communication in CS projects – strategies and tools, online workshop, 3 May 2022
Online Workshop on Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:00 – 15:30 CET During this interactive webinar, members of the CS Track team will share strategies for science communication in citizen science projects, provide an overview of relevant software and resources, and help...
CS Track researchers to present at EASST 2022
We are delighted to announce that our team members Christine Urban and Michael Strähle (Wissenschaftsladen Wien – Science Shop Vienna) are going to be presenting at the EASST 2022 Conference (6-9, July) in Madrid, Spain. They will give a presentation entitled...
ECSA Conference 2022, Call for proposals
The 4th ECSA Conference taking place from 5-8 October in Berlin, Germany runs under the cross-cutting theme of Citizen Science for Planetary Health. The concept of planetary health is based on the understanding that human health and human civilization depend on...
CS Track study investigates the potential of citizen science to respond to emerging challenges
The CS Track team of researchers led by Dr. Anne Turbe (Ecoscope) and have recently published a study that investigates the potential of citizen science to respond to emerging challenges. This report includes an analysis of Covid-19 citizen science projects using a...
Analyzing Citizen Science Projects using Web-based Tools, online workshop 15 March 2022
Online Workshop on Tuesday 15 March 2022 14:00 – 15:30 CET This workshop is about exploring a web-based tool (analytics workbench) that can be used to collect information about citizen science projects. It is based on current work in the European CS Track project,...
Webinar on how citizens can play an active role in the advance of ground-breaking research, 24 March
REINFORCE (Research Infrastructures FOR citizens in Europe) project is hosting a high-level roundtable and interactive workshop entitled "How citizens can play an active role in the advance of ground-breaking research?" on 24 March, 15:00-16:30 CET. Speakers at the...
Investigating the potential of citizen science to respond to COVID-19 challenges
How has the citizen science community responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? A content analysis-based study examining projects’ characteristics and activities.
CS Track team members to present at ECSA and Engaging Citizen Science conferences
We are delighted to announce that our team members are going to be presenting at the Engaging Citizen Science (25-26 April) and ECSA 2022 (5-8 October) conferences. A poster "Individual Learning Outcomes in Citizen Science Projects" will be presented and the analytics...
The Formosa Case: A Step Forward on the Acceptance of Citizen-Collected Evidence in Environmental Litigation?
Through a case law analysis of the Formosa ruling, we explore how citizen-collected evidence influenced the judge’s ruling. Although the case has unique features, we identify lessons learned for other citizen-run monitoring initiatives, to strengthen their voice within environmental litigation. We close by suggesting future research avenues, especially in Europe, where the discussion is still in its infancy.
Citizen Science and participatory evaluation and impact assessment – an interview with ZSI team in Austria
Stefanie Schuerz, Barbara Kieslinger, Teresa Schäfer and Katja Mayer all work at the Zentrum für Soziale Innovation GmbH/Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) in Austria which has been at the cutting edge of Citizen Science in Europe for many years.
Using citizen science data to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals: a bottom‐up analysis
Recent research suggests that citizen science projects see both valuable opportunities as well as deep-rooted barriers in linking their data to the SDGs.
Exploring the impact of a Citizen Science high school project
A study conducted in Norwegian high schools revealed that citizen science activities have positive impacts on learning, pro-environmental and pro-science attitudes, interest in scientific and environmental-related topics.
Economic considerations in Citizen Science
Examining the role of economic considerations in Citizen Science projects may yield some surprising conclusions, for example that those considerations may not be deemed by those involved in a project as important as could be expected. Greater attention seems to be paid to non-economic factors (e.g., educational gains).
Assessing the impact of citizen science
Assessments of impact in citizen science projects are rarely linked to specific indicators like impact on policies. MICS have created an impact assessment framework which is being used to underpin a software development involving both handcrafting and machine learning