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.

Continue reading 8 recommendations for institutions looking to support citizen science initiatives at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

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.

Continue reading How to improve citizen science projects? at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

The study aimed at assessing the pandemic’s impact on online CS participation and capturing CS project coordinators’ experience of the pandemic and their actions in managing the pandemic’s effects. 

Continue reading An explorative study on the effects of the recent pandemic on online Citizen Science: lessons learnt for improving project management and implementation 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.

The study aim is to investigate how a combination of methods (such as data analysis, computational or quantitative methods) could be applied to gather CS projects information to support teacher’s practice and inspire them. 

Continue reading Educational uses of CS data  at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

In this case study we intended to reflect on how the online data about CS is shared and communicated in the websites, how could this data be extracted massively and stored in a central database to, later be analysed with different purposes. One of its, studied in this article, is the usage of all the information in educational contexts.

Continue reading How to automate the extraction and analysis of information for educational purposes at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

Project descriptions are a central element of a Citizen Science project’s online presence and thus play a key role in recruiting volunteers. Very often, they are the first point of contact between a project and prospective participants. As such, they need to be reader-friendly and accessible, spark interest, contain all the necessary practical information, and motivate readers to join by explaining convincingly how they will benefit from participating in the project. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the project descriptions stored in the CS Track database meet these criteria. 

Continue reading Citizen science project descriptions as science communication texts – the good, the bad, and the ugly at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

One of the main objectives of CS Track project has been to realise an explorative study of CS projects in Europe, with the aim to categorize, cluster and build a database of CS projects that would allow an analysis of them. This has allowed: (1) to compile of a database of CS projects (and their corresponding CS activities) in the European Union and Associated Countries; (2) to document of a collection of these projects to explore their availability of data for further analysis following the knowledge gaps identified by the literature review.

Continue reading Research Areas in Citizen Science: One analysis of the CS Track database at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

Educational impacts of participation, such as the development of scientific skills or increased awareness about biodiversity and conservation, are one of the most widely discussed aspects of CS. Whereas most existing studies investigate perceived or observed learning gains of citizen scientists, this study took an alternative perspective by examining learning-related aspects in textual self-representations of CS projects—namely in project descriptions posted online. The aim was to determine which dimensions of learning are reflected most prominently in CS project descriptions.

Continue reading <strong>Identifying learning dimensions in CS project descriptions</strong> at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.

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 project descriptions that spark interest and attract volunteers – a 10-step guide at Citizen Science | CS Track Project.