Skip to Main Content
It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Site Navigation Menu

Citizen Science: Citizen Science in Research

Citizen science allows volunteer non-scientists to participate in data collection and analysis for scientific projects. This guide includes links to existing projects, both nationally and in Illinois.

Locating Research Based on Citizen Science

To locate research papers that use citizen science data, search for any or all of the following concepts, modified by the scientific discipline for which you're seeking information:

  • "citizen science"
  • "participatory science"
  • crowdsourcing

Below are some open source search engines to get you started. Don't forget the commercial databases (Scopus, Web of Science, etc) that may also be available through your local library.

The Monitor Change Method in Action

Monitor Change, a concept developed by Sam Droege of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, encourages citizen scientists to monitor environmental and social change using iPhones, photo-stitching, and time lapse.

Nerds for Nature used this idea to monitor how the landscape charred in the Mt. Diablo Morgan fire changed and recovered by taking pictures from fixed locations for one year after the fire.

Using Citizen Science Data in Research

The list below is a small representation of recent research papers that used citizen science data to reach their conclusions. To locate other papers, see search tips in the box above.

Books