In this interview, we talk to two professionals who have each worked in different research fields which have utilized citizen scientists as part of their profession and research.
Participation & Motivation
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Do volunteers in citizen science have different motivation profiles?
Volunteers in citizen science (CS) have different kinds of motivations for participation, ranging from e.g. topic interest, supporting science to personal recognition. Information regarding the existence and characteristics of motivation profile groups of volunteers remains unclear.
Do citizen scientists use different technologies depending on their age in CS activities?
Citizen science engages adults of all age groups. According to participants, which are technologies they use to participate in CS activities? What are the differences between different age groups and the technologies they use?
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...
Is it a match? Motivations on citizen science volunteers and recruitment arguments in project descriptions
This study aims at understanding how the alignment between the motivational factors of CS participants and the recruitment speech used in the projects’ description is, by performing quantitative triangulation of data collected through a survey about 12 motivational factors for participating in a CS project, and the manual analysis of the projects’ descriptions available in Zooniverse website.
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...
Empirical evidence on the characteristics of citizen scientists and what we can learn from it, online seminar, 20 October
Online Workshop on Thursday, 20 October 2022, 14:00 – 15:00 CET The webinar will provide perspectives and insights on the characteristics of citizen scientists based on our research. Presentations in the webinar will address central themes on how citizen...
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...
Miriam Calvera-Isabal presents CS Track project findings in multiple occasions
Over the past few months, our colleague Miriam Calvera-Isabal (UPF) has presented the CS Track project and our research findings at different conferences and project meetings, including TEASPIL, H2O Learn and LASI Spain. She explained how CS Track has centralized...
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...
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)...
New models to help us understand patterns of participation in citizen science activities
The CS Track team has released a new report entitled Models to identify background factors associated with the CS activity. It introduces how the CS Track team created 6 models with the aim of developing a deeper understanding of how different factors (e.g. gender, age, roles in CS) are associated with different forms of participation in CS activities.
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,...
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...
More information on replicable models – just one of the priorities for CS Track stakeholders
In order to better tailor our work to the needs of our different stakeholders, the CS Track team led a series of focus group discussions in September. These focus groups directly involved over 30 people coming from different stakeholder communities including policy-makers and officers, platform and support agency representatives, people interested in CS from an educational perspective and CS project leaders, participants and researchers.
IMDEA Energy. Communicating science to drive citizen engagement in the transition to a Circular Economy model
IMDEA Energy is a research center created by the Community of Madrid in Spain, whose objectives are to promote and carry out R&D activities related to energy, especially for the promotion of renewable energies and clean energy technologies that allow progress towards a sustainable energy system.
12 recommendations for addressing future challenges through citizen science
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed an opportunity to improve the outcomes of citizen science in response to emerging challenges.
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,...
How do different participants contribute to the knowledge-building discourse in online citizen science projects?
It is expected that the discussion boards in online CS projects provide a space for knowledge-building.
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...
Citizen Science in Schools: Predictors and Outcomes of Participating in Voluntary Political Research
Citizen science research has become a popular approach in youth education. Findings suggest that females are more motivated to learn from the project. Participation in the project slightly increased science interest, but not science efficacy. However, it did increase both political interest and efficacy.
Why is the protection of online privacy important to the Citizen Science community? – an interview with Huma Shah from CSI-COP
Huma Shah is an Assistant Professor and Researcher in AI at Coventry University in the UK. She is a passionate defender of online privacy. She is currently directing the science on the EU-funded CSI-COP project. This aims to raise awareness of citizens’ right to privacy online, and to mobilise citizen scientists from across Europe and beyond to investigate the different types of trackers in websites and apps.
CS Track project researchers to present at Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022
We're delighted to announce that our colleagues Christine Urban and Michael Strähle (Wissenschaftsladen Wien - Science Shop Vienna) will be presenting a poster and a paper at the 7th Austrian Citizen Science Conference. The paper will tackle the issue as to why...
How social network analysis reveals significant variables in Citizen Science projects: the Chimp & See case
Chimp & See is one of the projects of the Zooniverse platform, which is one of the largest citizen science web portals, was initiated in 2015 by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The aim of the project is to learn more about the culture, population size and demography of chimpanzees in specific regions of Africa.
Biodiversity citizen science projects: What are the benefits for the participants?
Biodiversity citizen science projects investigate, for example, which species of plants or animals exist in an area and how many individuals of each species live in that area. Such projects involve citizen scientists in identifying and monitoring biological diversity and collecting biodiversity data. With the help of citizen scientists, researchers can collect large amounts of such data that they would not be able to collect on their own. We wanted to know how citizen scientists benefit from their participation in biodiversity citizen science projects.
What are the boundaries of citizen science? Learning from a vignette study
Citizen science has expanded rapidly over the past decade. As a result defining citizen science and its boundaries remains a challenge, and this is reflected in the literature—for example in the proliferation of typologies and definitions. There is a need for identifying areas of agreement and disagreement within the citizen science practitioners community on what should be considered citizen science.
Increased knowledge generates more positive attitudes to science by citizen science participation
Can knowledge foster positive attitudes toward science in CS projects? Research on the public understanding of science has found that the relationship between attitudes toward science and general knowledge of scientific content is only small. We investigated whether this relationship and its direction is stronger in CS projects because these projects address specific knowledge such as wildlife ecology. Our findings indicated that citizens’ knowledge about wildlife improved their attitudes toward science later on.
Knowledge building and roles in Citizen Science – findings from the CS Track survey 2021
Citizen science entails the participation of the public and professional scientists in scientific activities in order to expand scientific knowledge and understanding. This involves participants adopting different roles for completing specific tasks which can shape overall learning experiences.
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.
Typical characteristics of citizen science (CS) participants
Citizen science (CS) activities have increasingly become diverse of both subject matter and objectives, creating diverse opportunities for people representing a variety of socio-economic backgrounds as well as experiences to come together and participate in science activities.
Who takes part in Citizen Science projects & why?
Identifying who takes part in citizen science projects and understanding what motivates them are key aspects in building our understanding of citizen science. These aspects are at the heart of a recent White Paper published by the CS Track project which highlights interest in the theme, contributing to scientific research and opportunities to learn as key factors when it comes to motivation.
Survey into Citizen Science Strategies and Initiatives reveals a very mixed picture
The recent JRC report on Citizen Science Strategies and Initiatives in Europe highlights the different ways in which Citizen Science is supported and understood in Europe. The results of its survey show how Citizen Science is evolving and where the main barriers to its successful implementation lie.
Citizen Science and Open Learning: A Twitter perspective
Social networks, such as Twitter, are increasingly being investigated to capture online interactive participation. Although citizen science projects have been remarkably successful in advancing scientific knowledge, it is not known whether the educational aspect is considered in citizen science projects.
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