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.

Continue reading Personal motives for engaging in citizen science – A view from two professionals at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

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.

Continue reading Do volunteers in citizen science have different motivation profiles? at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

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?

Continue reading Do citizen scientists use different technologies depending on their age in CS activities? 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.

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.

Continue reading Is it a match? Motivations on citizen science volunteers and recruitment arguments in project descriptions 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.

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 reminder of the importance of protecting the environment, the theme that runs through so many Citizen Science projects. The agenda over the following two days was intense with presentation and discussion sessions involving the almost 500 participants in debate about the best ways to organise Citizen Science activities to have the most impact.

Continue reading Citizen Science Community meets in force in Berlin at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

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 scientists view their participation in citizen science projects, e.g., learning and motivation.

In addition, the webinar will address the question of how empirical evidence can serve as a foundation for thinking about the future of citizen science in terms of policy recommendations.

Continue reading Empirical evidence on the characteristics of citizen scientists and what we can learn from it, online seminar, 20 October at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.