LibGuides: Citizen Science/Participatory Science: Citizen Science in Research

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.

Associations

Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences The Citizen Science Association unites expertise from educators, scientists, data managers, and others to power citizen science.

Collecting and using citizen science data in your research

For data generated by the public to have a meaningful impact, quality assurance during data gathering is critical. U.S. EPA has created the Handbook for Citizen Science Quality Assurance and Documentation to help organizations starting or growing a participatory/citizen science project. The handbook is designed for organizations that are starting or growing a participatory/citizen science project and where transparency in the scientific methods for collecting the data are central to the outcome of the project. The handbook also includes templates and examples.

Handbook for Citizen Science Quality Assurance and Documentation This Handbook conveys common expectations for quality assurance and documentation; and best management practices to level the playing field for organizations that train and use volunteers in the collection of environmental data. It is useful for three broad categories of participatory science projects: increasing public understanding; scientific studies and research; and legal and policy action.
Make Your Data Count video series In 18 minutes, these training videos walk you through the main concepts of the EPA QA Handbook to help them develop a project plan—a key step to producing quality data that can answer environmental and public health questions.
Improving Participatory/Citizen Science Data Quality: Orientation Guide and Fact Sheets The orientation guide for government agencies can be used alongside training videos, fact sheets and webinars to help provide agencies, laboratories and participatory science groups with information, strategies and resources to collaboratively develop a project plan using the EPA QA Handbook.

The Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences has developed a data ethics toolkit and a data standard for public participation in scientific research.

Data Ethics in the Participatory Sciences Toolkit The toolkit was developed to help scientists consider ethical issues surrounding data, the bedrock of science. It was built collaboratively by and for practitioners of citizen and community science. The toolkit aims to help project leaders understand their role as data handlers in identifying, satisfying, and/or balancing ethical obligations of a project to participants, partners, science, and society.
PPSR Core PPSR Core is a set of global, transdisciplinary data and metadata standards for use in Public Participation in Scientific Research (Citizen Science) projects. These standards are united, supported, and underlined by a common framework illustrating how information is structured within the citizen science domain. This allows data to be used across platforms and projects in a consistent manner, furthering the research goals of the scientific community.

Research papers that use participatory science data

This is a small sample of research papers that use citizen science data.

Awareness and learning in participatory noise sensing The development of ICT infrastructures has facilitated the emergence of new paradigms for looking at society and the environment over the last few years. Participatory environmental sensing, i.e. directly involving citizens in environmental monitoring, is one example, which is hoped to encourage learning and enhance awareness of environmental issues. In this paper, an analysis of the behaviour of individuals involved in noise sensing is presented. (PLoS One, December 11, 2013)
Biodiversity data: Mine centuries-old citizen science Historical data on biodiversity would be valuable for investigating the long-term impact of human activities. Contrary to popular belief, such data have been widely collected for several hundred years through initiatives that would today be described as 'citizen science'. (Nature, 510 (35), June 4, 2014)
Bird Communities and Their Conservation Priorities are Better Understood through the Integration of Traditional and Citizen Science Data: An Example from Brazilian Atlantic Forest The status of endemic and threatened birds of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest remains poorly understood. Citizen science offers information that helps fill this gap. (Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 7(1), p.9 (2022)).
Building a co-created citizen science program with gardeners neighboring a superfund site: The Gardenroots case study A research project that is only expert-driven may ignore the role of local knowledge in research, give low priority to the development of a comprehensive communication strategy to engage the community, and may not deliver the results of the study to the community in an effective way. (Int Public Health J. 2015 Jan; 7(1): 13)
Can evolutionary design of social networks make it easier to be 'green'? The social Web is swiftly becoming a living laboratory for understanding human cooperation on massive scales. It has changed how we organize, socialize, and tackle problems that benefit from the efforts of a large crowd. A new, applied, behavioral ecology has begun to build on theoretical and empirical studies of cooperation, integrating research in the fields of evolutionary biology, social psychology, social networking, and citizen science. Here, we review the ways in which these disciplines inform the design of Internet environments to support collective pro-environmental behavior, tapping into proximate prosocial mechanisms and models of social evolution, as well as generating opportunities for 'field studies' to discover how we can support massive collective action and shift environmental social norms. (Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28(9), 561-9 (2013)).
Citizens, science and bird conservation Collaborative research by networks of amateurs has had a major role in ornithology and conservation science and will continue to do so. It has been important in establishing the facts of migration, systematically recording distribution, providing insights into habitat requirements and recording variation in numbers, productivity and survival, thus allowing detailed demographic analyses. The availability of these data has allowed conservation work to be focussed on priority species, habitats and sites and enabled refined monitoring and research programmes aimed at providing the understanding necessary for sound conservation management and for evidence-based government policy. The success of such work depends on the independence of the science from those advocating particular policies in order to ensure that the science is unbiased. Wetland birds are surveyed in much of the world. Most countries also have a ringing scheme. Other forms of collaborative ornithology are strong in North America, Australia and Australasia, more patchily distributed in Asia (but with strong growth in some countries) and even patchier in Africa and South America. Such work is most successful where there is a strong partnership between the amateurs and the professional, based on their complementary roles. The participation of large numbers of volunteers not only enables work to be done that would otherwise be impossible but also facilitates democratic participation in the decisions made by society and builds social capital. The recruitment to and subsequent retention of people in the research networks are important skills. Surveys must be organized in ways that take into account the motives of the participants. It is useful to assess the skills of potential participants and, rather than rejecting those thought not to have adequate skills, to provide training. Special attention needs to be paid to ensuring that instructions are clear, that methods are standardized and that data are gathered in a form that is easily processed. Providing for the continuity of long-term projects is essential. There are advantages to having just one organization running most of the work in each country. Various sorts of organizations are possible: societies governed by their (amateur) members but employing professional staff to organize the work seem to be a particularly successful model. Independence from government and from conservation organizations is desirable. (Journal of Ornithology, 148(Suppl 1), 77 (2007)).
A citizen science approach to evaluating US cities for biotic homogenization To better understand whether rapidly growing cities are hosting the same species, a team analyzed an immense volume of data gathered by citizen scientists during the four-day global City Nature Challenge. Study findings suggest that despite similarities across cities, urban biodiversity still strongly reflects the species that are native to a region. However, observations of shared ''cosmopolitan'' species like pigeons, white-tailed deer, and dandelions were more numerous than locally occurring species. (PeerJ 7:e6879 (2019)).
Citizen Science Reveals Unexpected Continental-Scale Evolutionary Change in a Model Organism Large datasets on genetic polymorphism that can provide an historical benchmark against which to test for recent evolutionary responses are very rare, but an exception is found in the brown-lipped banded snail (Cepaea nemoralis). This species is sensitive to its thermal environment and exhibits several polymorphisms of shell colour and banding pattern affecting shell albedo in the majority of populations within its native range in Europe. We tested for evolutionary changes in shell albedo that might have been driven by the warming of the climate in Europe over the last half century by compiling an historical dataset for 6,515 native populations of C. nemoralis and comparing this with new data on nearly 3,000 populations. The new data were sampled mainly in 2009 through the Evolution MegaLab, a citizen science project that engaged thousands of volunteers in 15 countries throughout Europe in the biggest such exercise ever undertaken. (PLoS One, April 27, 2011).
Citizen Social Scientists’ Observations on Complex Tasks Match Trained Research Assistants’, Suggesting Lived Experiences are Valuable in Data Collection The main finding is that citizen social scientists who had self-reported with specific social categories relevant to the social exclusions were roughly equal observers to those who did not identify as belonging to those categories, an unexpected finding. Likewise, citizen social scientists who reported experiences of discrimination were not more likely to observe more social exclusions or discrimination in public places than those who did not report such experiences. (Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 6(1), p.37 (2022))
Climatic dipoles drive two principal modes of North American boreal bird irruption This study is the first, to our knowledge, to reveal how climate variability drives irruptions of North American boreal seed-eating birds. Patterns of Pine Siskin irruption and associated climate drivers manifest as two modes (North-South and West-East) in which dipoles of temperature and precipitation anomalies push and pull irruptive movements across the continent at biennial to decadal periodicities. Our study accentuates the value of sustained and synoptic biological observations, contributed by citizen scientists in this case, that match the spatial and temporal scales at which climatic phenomena are observed and understood. Such observations can help probe new questions, such as the role of climatic dipoles in other large-scale ecological processes. (PNAS, 112(21), E2795–E2802).
Combating Climate Injustices: An Informal Science and Popular Education Approach to Addressing Environmental Health Disparities As global warming worsens, addressing environmental health disparities and justice is increasingly important. This necessity is evident in southern metropolitan Tucson, Arizona, an area underserved and disproportionately experiencing the effects of climate change. Including underserved groups in problem solving can spur knowledge generation and the building of community capacity to address and mitigate environmental health challenges posed by climate justice. This article describes a community-based project that utilized a peer education framework coupled with citizen science design. Community health workers (promotoras) were trained in environmental health, climate change, and environmental monitoring protocols to then educate and train families about these same subjects. The study goal was to evaluate science and environmental health learning, awareness, and self-efficacy at the promotora and residential levels resulting from intensive 40-hour trainings, peer education via home visits, and environmental monitoring. Pre- and postsurveys were completed by the promotoras and the families they visited. Motivations for participation as well as changes in self-efficacy and knowledge were analyzed. Results revealed that the promotora’s motivations were primarily internal and they were concerned with health. Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (p = .05), it was observed that for both study groups, knowledge of water and energy conservation statistically increased, as well as self-efficacy for environmental action and scientific learning. This article demonstrates that promotoras are critical in environmental health and climate science peer education. These findings can be used to further develop peer education citizen science projects in underserved communities, ensuring that efforts increase participants’ learning, self-efficacy, and enhance social–ecological outcomes. (Pedagogy in Health Promotion 4(4), 260-269 (2018)).
Combining Physical and Digital Data Collection for Citizen Science Climate Research In this paper, we present our experience designing and implementing a hybrid citizen science protocol combining local data collection reported digitally with the return of physical samples by mail. (Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 7(1) (2022)).
Continental patterns in marine debris revealed by a decade of citizen science Ten years of citizen science data informs this study, which found plastic dominates the rubbish found on Australian beaches. (Full citation: Gacuta, J. et al (2022). Science of the Total Environment 807(2), 150742.
Crowdsourcing, the great meteor storm of 1833, and the founding of meteor science Yale science professor Denison Olmsted used crowdsourcing to gather observations from across the United States of the unexpected deluge of meteors on 13 November 1833 - more than 72,000/h. He used these observations (and newspaper accounts and correspondence from scientists) to make a commendably accurate interpretation of the meteor storm, overturning 2100 years of erroneous teachings about shooting stars and establishing meteor science as a new branch of astronomy. Olmsted's success was substantially based on his use of newspapers and their practice of news pooling to solicit observations from throughout the country by lay and expert observers professionally unaffiliated with Yale College and him. (Endeavour June 7, 2014).
Crowdsourcing taste research: genetic and phenotypic predictors of bitter taste perception as a model Understanding the influence of taste perception on food choice has captured the interest of academics, industry, and the general public, the latter as evidenced by the extent of popular media coverage and use of the term supertaster. Supertasters are highly sensitive to the bitter tastant propylthiouracil (PROP) and its chemical relative phenylthiocarbamide. The well-researched differences in taste sensitivity to these bitter chemicals are partially controlled by variation in the TAS2R38 gene; however, this variation alone does not explain the supertaster phenomenon. It has been suggested that density of papillae, which house taste buds, may explain supertasting. To address the unresolved role of papillae, we used crowdsourcing in the museum-based Genetics of Taste Lab. (Front. Integr. Neurosci., 26 May 2014).
Data-intensive science applied to broad-scale citizen science Identifying ecological patterns across broad spatial and temporal extents requires novel approaches and methods for acquiring, integrating and modeling massive quantities of diverse data. For example, a growing number of research projects engage continent-wide networks of volunteers (‘citizen-scientists’) to collect species occurrence data. Although these data are information rich, they present numerous challenges in project design, implementation and analysis, which include: developing data collection tools that maximize data quantity while maintaining high standards of data quality, and applying new analytical and visualization techniques that can accurately reveal patterns in these data. Here, we describe how advances in data-intensive science provide accurate estimates in species distributions at continental scales by identifying complex environmental associations. (Ecological and Evolutionary Informatics, 27(2), 130-137 (2012)).
Did You Feel It? Citizens Contribute to Earthquake Science Since the early 1990s, the magnitude and location of earthquakes have been available within minutes on the Internet. Now, as a result of work by the U.S. Geological Survey and with the cooperation of various regional seismic networks, people who experience an earthquake can go online and share information about its effects to help create a map of shaking intensities and damage. Such "Community Internet Intensity Maps" (CIIMs) contribute greatly toward the quick assessment of the scope of an earthquake emergency and provide valuable data for earthquake research. (USGS Fact Sheet, 2012).
Distribution and abundance of small plastic debris on beaches in the SE Pacific (Chile): a study supported by a citizen science project The accumulation of large and small plastic debris is a problem throughout the world's oceans and coastlines. Abundances and types of small plastic debris have only been reported for some isolated beaches in the SE Pacific, but these data are insufficient to evaluate the situation in this region. The citizen science project "National Sampling of Small Plastic Debris" was supported by schoolchildren from all over Chile who documented the distribution and abundance of small plastic debris on Chilean beaches. (Marine Environmental Research 87-88, p 12-18 (2013)).
eBird: engaging birders in science and conservation How do you successfully engage an audience in a citizen-science project? The processes developed by eBird (www.ebird.org), a fast-growing web-based tool that now gathers millions of bird observations per month, offers a model. (PLoS Biology 9)12), e1001220 (2011)).
Empowering Community Water Data Stakeholders Access to clean water is a critical challenge and opportunity for community-level collaboration. People rely on local water sources, but awareness of water quality and participation in water management is often limited. Lack of community engagement can increase risks of water catastrophes, such as those in Flint, Michigan, and Cape Town, South Africa. We investigated water quality practices in a watershed system serving c.100 000 people in the United States. We identified a range of entities including government and nonprofit citizen groups that gather water quality data. Many of these data are accessible in principle to citizens. However, the data are scattered and diverse; information infrastructures are primitive and not integrated. Water quality data and data practices are hidden in plain sight. Based on fieldwork, we consider sociotechnical courses of action, drawing on best practices in human–computer interaction and community informatics, data and environmental systems management. [Interacting with Computers (2019), 31(5), 492–506.]
European do-it-yourself (DIY) biology: beyond the hope, hype and horror The encounter of amateur science with synthetic biology has led to the formation of several amateur/do-it-yourself biology (DIYBio) groups worldwide. Although media outlets covered DIYBio events, most seemed only to highlight the hope, hype, and horror of what DIYBio would do in the future. Here, we analyze the European amateur biology movement to find out who they are, what they aim for and how they differ from US groups. We found that all groups are driven by a core leadership of (semi-)professional people who struggle with finding lab space and equipment. Regulations on genetic modification limit what groups can do. Differences between Europe and the US are found in the distinct regulatory environments and the European emphasis on bio-art. We conclude that DIYBio Europe has so far been a responsible and transparent citizen science movement with a solid user base that will continue to grow irrespective of media attention. (Bioessays 36(6), 548-551 (2014)).
Humans as long-distance dispersers of rural plant communities Humans are known for their capacity to disperse organisms long distances. Long-distance dispersal can be important for species threatened by habitat destruction, but research into human-mediated dispersal is often focused upon few and/or invasive species. Here we use citizen science to identify the capacity for humans to disperse seeds on their clothes and footwear from a known species pool in a valuable habitat, allowing for an assessment of the fraction and types of species dispersed by humans in an alternative context. (PLoS One, May 2, 2013).
The impacts of an invasive species citizen science training program on participant attitudes, behavior, and science literacy Citizen science can make major contributions to informal science education by targeting participants' attitudes and knowledge about science while changing human behavior towards the environment. We examined how training associated with an invasive species citizen science program affected participants in these areas. (Public Understanding of Science 22(6) 745-764 (2013)).
Insights into biodiversity sampling strategies for freshwater microinvertebrate faunas through bioblitz campaigns and DNA barcoding Biodiversity surveys have long depended on traditional methods of taxonomy to inform sampling protocols and to determine when a representative sample of a given species pool of interest has been obtained. Questions remain as to how to design appropriate sampling efforts to accurately estimate total biodiversity. Here we consider the biodiversity of freshwater ostracods (crustacean class Ostracoda) from the region of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Through an analysis of observed species richness and complementarity, accumulation curves, and richness estimators, we conduct an a posteriori analysis of five bioblitz-style collection strategies that differed in terms of total duration, number of sites, protocol flexibility to heterogeneous habitats, sorting of specimens for analysis, and primary purpose of collection. We used DNA barcoding to group specimens into molecular operational taxonomic units for comparison. (BMC Ecology, April 4, 2013).
iWitness pollution map: crowdsourcing petrochemical accident research Community members living near any one of Louisiana's 160 chemical plants or refineries have always said that accidents occurring in these petrochemical facilities significantly impact their health and safety. This article reviews the iWitness Pollution Map tool and Rapid Response Team (RRT) approach led by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental nonprofit group, and their effectiveness in documenting these health and safety impacts during petrochemical accidents. Analysis of a January 2013 RRT deployment in Chalmette, LA, showed increased documentation of current petrochemical accidents and suggested increased preparedness to report future accidents. The RRT model encourages government response and enforcement agencies to integrate with organized community groups to fully document the impacts during ongoing accidents, lead a more timely response to the accident, and prevent future accidents from occurring. (New Solutions 23(3), 521-533 (2013)).
Lead Pollution, Demographics, and Environmental Health Risks: The Case of Philadelphia, USA The study used data from community-driven soil sampling campaigns to investigate lead content in surface soils across Philadelphia. (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(7), 9055 (2021))
Long-term citizen-collected data reveal geographical patterns and temporal trends in lake water clarity We compiled a lake-water clarity database using publically available, citizen volunteer observations made between 1938 and 2012 across eight states in the Upper Midwest, USA. Our objectives were to determine (1) whether temporal trends in lake-water clarity existed across this large geographic area and (2) whether trends were related to the lake-specific characteristics of latitude, lake size, or time period the lake was monitored. (PLoS One, April 30, 2014).
Marine debris removal: one year of effort by the Georgia Sea Turtle-Center-Marine Debris Initiative Once in the marine environment, debris poses a significant threat to marine life that can be prevented through the help of citizen science. Marine debris is any manufactured item that enters the ocean regardless of source, commonly plastics, metal, wood, glass, foam, cloth, or rubber. Citizen science is an effective way to engage volunteers in conservation initiatives and provide education and skill development. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center Marine Debris Initiative (GSTC-MDI) is a grant funded program developed to engage citizens in the removal of marine debris from the beaches of Jekyll Island, GA, USA and the surrounding areas. During the first year of effort, more than 200 volunteers donated over 460 h of service to the removal of marine debris. Of the debris removed, approximately 89% were plastics, with a significant portion being cigarette materials. Given the successful first year, the GSTC-MDI was funded again for a second year. (Marine Pollution Bulletin 74(1), 165-9 (2013)).
Microplastic detectives: A citizen-science project reveals large variation in meso- and microplastic pollution along German coastlines Plastic production and plastic waste have increased to such an extent that it has become globally ubiquitous. Several studies already have investigated the meso- and microplastic pollution along the German Baltic and North Sea coasts, but were all limited to a few locations. To obtain representative bulk samples from sandy beaches along the entire German coast, we initiated a citizen-science project entitled “Microplastic Detectives.” Here, we describe in detail 1) how we recruited, instructed, and engaged citizen scientists, 2) why we chose bulk sampling over reduced-volume sampling, and 3) the laboratory methods we used. Full citation: Walther, BA, et al. (2024) Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12.
Modelling relationships between lichen bioindicators, air quality and climate on a national scale: results from the UK OPAL air survey. Air pollution has many negative effects on the natural environment, from changes in plant growth patterns to loss of ecosystem function. This study uses citizen science to investigate national-scale patterns in the distribution and abundance of selected lichen species on tree trunks and branches, and to relate these to air pollution and climate. Volunteers collected data for nine lichen indicators on 19,334 deciduous trees. Submitted data provided information on species-level patterns, and were used to derive composite lichen indices. (Environmental Pollution 182, 437-447 (2013)).
Monitoring the world's bird populations with community science data Community science programs may improve our ability to monitor world bird populations. We use data from eBird to estimate population trends for 9000 bird species. We compare these trends (increasing, stable or decreasing) with those of BirdLife. Overall, eBird trends were marginally better than expected by chance. Agreement improved for common, temperate and increasing species of Least Concern. (Biological Conservation 248, 108653 (2020)).
A National-Scale Assessment of Mercury Bioaccumulation in United States National Parks Using Dragonfly Larvae As Biosentinels through a Citizen-Science Framework Research confirms dragonfly larvae as ''biosentinels'' to indicate mercury pollution and presents the first-ever survey of mercury pollution in the U.S. National Park System. (Environmental Science & Technology 54 (14): 8779 (2020).)
Natural history traits associated with detecting mortality within residential bird communities: can citizen science provide insights? Cat predation of birds in residential landscapes is ephemeral, unpredictable, and spatially dispersed, and thus requires many person-hours to observe. We sought to identify whether specific behaviors, traits, or feeding ecologies of birds contribute to their probability of cat-caused mortality around residences across temperate North America. In addressing this question, we evaluated citizen science data with respect to peer-reviewed species accounts (Birds of North America, BNA). (Environmental Management 50(1), 11-20 (2012)).
The Neighborhood Nestwatch Program: Participant Outcomes of a Citizen‐Science Ecological Research Project The Neighborhood Nestwatch (NN) program engages citizen scientists in the collection of scientific data and fosters scientific literacy and increased attachment to place in their local natural environment. Here, we define science literacy as both an understanding of scientific content and ways of thinking such that citizens can make better sense of our increasingly technical and scientific world. Skills of a scientifically literate citizen include critical and independent thinking, ability to interpret evidence and data, and understanding the role of uncertainty (AAAS 1993). But scientific literacy alone is not sufficient for understanding the influence of humans on ecological systems. People need to know about the places in which they live. We suggest that a sense of one's place has four primary components: knowledge, skills, awareness, and disposition to care. The first two components are aspects of science literacy. Moreover, there are many feedback loops between these four components. (Conservation Biology 19: 589-594 (2005)).
New Blood: The Promise of Environmental Health Citizen Science Projects Citizen science projects also have the potential to democratize science by exposing a greater and more diverse section of the population to the scientific process. This is especially true in the environmental health research realm because a disproportionately high number of people of color and of low income—who also are underrepresented in the research community—live near environmentally compromised spaces. (Environmental Health Perspectives 125:11 CID: 112001 (2017)).
Next Steps for Citizen Science Despite the wealth of information emerging from citizen science projects, the practice is not universally accepted as a valid method of scientific investigation. Scientific papers presenting volunteer-collected data sometimes have trouble getting reviewed and are often placed in outreach sections of journals or education tracks of scientific meetings. At the same time, opportunities to use citizen science to achieve positive outcomes for science and society are going unrealized. Here, we offer suggestions for strategic thinking by citizen science practitioners and their scientific peers—and for tactical investment by private funders and government agencies—to help the field reach its full potential. (Science 343(6178), 1436-7 (2014)).
The notes from nature tool for unlocking biodiversity records from museum records through citizen science Legacy data from natural history collections contain invaluable and irreplaceable information about biodiversity in the recent past, providing a baseline for detecting change and forecasting the future of biodiversity on a human-dominated planet. However, these data are often not available in formats that facilitate use and synthesis. New approaches are needed to enhance the rates of digitization and data quality improvement. Notes from Nature provides one such novel approach by asking citizen scientists to help with transcription tasks. (Zookeys, 209, 219-233 (2012)).
Open-Phylo: a customizable crowd-computing platform for multiple sequence alignment Citizen science games such as Galaxy Zoo, Foldit, and Phylo aim to harness the intelligence and processing power generated by crowds of online gamers to solve scientific problems. However, the selection of the data to be analyzed through these games is under the exclusive control of the game designers, and so are the results produced by gamers. Here, we introduce Open-Phylo, a freely accessible crowd-computing platform that enables any scientist to enter our system and use crowds of gamers to assist computer programs in solving one of the most fundamental problems in genomics: the multiple sequence alignment problem. (Genome Biology 14(10) (2013)).
Optimizing the conservation of migratory species over their full annual cycle Limited knowledge of the distribution, abundance, and habitat associations of migratory species hinders effective conservation actions. We use Neotropical migratory birds as a model group to compare approaches to prioritize land conservation needed to support ≥30% of the global abundances of 117 species. Specifically, we compare scenarios from spatial optimization models to achieve conservation targets by: 1) area requirements for conserving >30% abundance of each species for each week of the year independently vs. combined; 2) including vs. ignoring spatial clustering of species abundance; and 3) incorporating vs. avoiding human-dominated landscapes. Solutions integrating information across the year require 56% less area than those integrating weekly abundances, with additional reductions when shared-use landscapes are included. Although incorporating spatial population structure requires more area, geographical representation among priority sites improves substantially. These findings illustrate that globally-sourced citizen science data can elucidate key trade-offs among opportunity costs and spatiotemporal representation of conservation efforts. (Nature Communications 10, Article number: 1754 (2019)).
Phylo: a citizen science approach for improving multiple sequence alignment We demonstrate that, combined with classical algorithms, crowd computing techniques can be successfully used to help improving the accuracy of MSA. More importantly, we show that an NP-hard computational problem can be embedded in casual game that can be easily played by people without significant scientific training. This suggests that citizen science approaches can be used to exploit the billions of "human-brain peta-flops" of computation that are spent every day playing games. Phylo is available at: http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca. (PLoS One, March 7, 2012).
The potential of semi-structured citizen science data as a supplement for conservation decision-making: Validating the performance of eBird against targeted avian monitoring efforts Methods are being developed to capitalize on citizen science data for research and monitoring, but these data are rarely used within established decision-making frameworks of wildlife agencies. Citizen science data are often collected at higher resolution and extent than targeted monitoring programs, and may provide complementary information. Here, we demonstrate that carefully filtered semi-structured citizen science observations, when paired with targeted survey data, can produce ecological predictions at higher resolution and extent than targeted surveys alone, and both datasets can represent complementary aspects of species' ecology. We present case studies demonstrating how citizen science data can enhance or supplement decision-making of government and conservation organizations. (Stuber, EF et al (2022). Biological Conservation, 270, 1095566)
Public participation, trust and data sharing: gardens as hubs for citizen science and environmental health literacy efforts Gardenroots: A Citizen Science Project (2015) is the product of a needs assessment, revealing environmental quality concerns of gardeners living near hazardous waste or resource extraction activities. Participants were trained, collected garden samples for analysis, and later received their data visualized (individual and aggregated) via community events or mail. This article describes participant motivations, changes in knowledge and efficacy, and whether these depend on the mode of data sharing and visualization. Motivations were internal, and self-efficacy increased, while knowledge and satisfaction were higher in event attendees due to increased researcher contact. This reveals importance of data-sharing events, data visualizations, and participatory research processes. (International Journal of Science Education, Part B 9(1), 54-71. (2018)).
The role of 'Big Society' in monitoring the state of the natural environment Environmental monitoring is essential for assessing the current state of the environment, measuring impacts of environmental pressures and providing evidence to government. Recent UK government announcements have indicated an increased role for 'Big Society' in monitoring. In this paper, we review available literature concerning the use of citizen science for monitoring, present examples of successful volunteer monitoring work and highlight important issues surrounding the use of volunteers. (Environmental Monitoring 13(10), 2687-91 (2011)).
Sense and Influence: Environmental Monitoring Tools and the Power of Citizen Science Automated monitoring devices are useful technologies for communities seeking to document and solve environmental problems. However, without deeper scrutiny of their design and deployment, there is a risk that they will fail to have the impact that many of their promoters intend. We develop a rubric for analysing how different kinds of monitoring devices help environmental advocates influence public debates. We apply this rubric in a study of environmental organizations in Pennsylvania that are choosing between recruiting volunteer citizen scientists and using automated sensor-based devices to gather water quality data in streams threatened by hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. Many organizations rely on volunteers using simple monitoring tools because they are affordable and produce easily managed data sets. An argument for this method of monitoring is that volunteering in the field also fosters citizen engagement in environmental debates. By comparison, we find the increased use of automated devices tends to reinforce hierarchies of expertise and constrains the agendas of nonprofessionals who participate in monitoring projects. We argue that these findings suggest that automated technologies, however effective they may be in gathering data on environmental quality, are not well designed to support broad public participation in environmental science and politics. [Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning (2016) 18(3), 379-397]
The Success of the Horse-Chestnut Leaf-Miner, Cameraria ohridella, in the UK Revealed with Hypothesis-Led Citizen Science Citizen science is an increasingly popular way of undertaking research and simultaneously engaging people with science. However, most emphasis of citizen science in environmental science is on long-term monitoring. Here, we demonstrate the opportunities provided by short-term hypothesis-led citizen science. (PLoS One, January 22, 2014)
Unite research with what citizens do for fun: "recreational monitoring" of marine biodiversity Institutes often lack funds and manpower to perform large-scale biodiversity monitoring. Citizens can be involved, contributing to the collection of data, thus decreasing costs. Underwater research requires specialist skills and SCUBA certification, and it can be difficult to involve volunteers. The aim of this study was to involve large numbers of recreational divers in marine biodiversity monitoring for increasing the environmental education of the public and collecting data on the status of marine biodiversity. Here we show that thousands of recreational divers can be enrolled in a short time. (Ecological Applications 20(8), 2170-87 (2010)).
Using citizen science to inform urban canid management Our objective was to evaluate the potential of using iNaturalist-generated observations of urban red foxes and coyotes for cost-effective, customizable data collection to inform urban canid management. (Landscape and Urban Planning 189, 362-371 (2019)).
Using opportunistic citizen science data to estimate avian population trends Ecotourism growth and subsequent increases in opportunistic data from birdwatching can provide a source of population trend information if analyses control for inter-observer variation. (Full citation: Horns, J.J, et al.(2018) Biological Conservation 221, 151-159).
The whereabouts of flower visitors: contrasting land-use preferences revealed by a country-wide survey based on citizen science Our approach allowed the first standardised evaluation of the affinity of flower visitors with the main land-use types across a broad taxonomical range and a wide geographic scope. Our results suggest that the most detrimental land-use change for flower visitor communities is urbanisation. Moreover, our findings highlight the fact that agricultural areas have the potential to host highly diverse pollinator communities. We suggest that policy makers should, therefore, focus on the implementation of pollinator-friendly practices in agricultural lands. This may be a win-win strategy, as both biodiversity and crop production may benefit from healthier communities of flower visitors in these areas. (PLoS One, Sept. 19, 2012)
Where and why are species' range shifts hampered by unsuitable landscapes? Real data gathered by volunteers was combined with new computer models for the first time to reveal which UK moth species are struggling to expand into new regions and the landscape barriers restricting their movement. (Global Change Biology, 2022)
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources and long-distance transport as causes, empirical data about its origin and sources are scarce. Data collected by citizen scientists can increase the scale of observations, especially in such remote regions. Here, we report abundance and composition data of marine debris collected by citizen scientists on 14 remote Arctic beaches on the Spitsbergen archipelago. Meyer et al (2023). Frontiers in Marine Science.
Youth Engaged Participatory Air Monitoring: A ‘Day in the Life’ in Urban Environmental Justice Communities Air pollution in Southern California does not impact all communities equally; communities of color are disproportionately burdened by poor air quality and more likely to live near industrial facilities and freeways. Government regulatory monitors do not have the spatial resolution to provide air quality information at the neighborhood or personal scale. We describe the A Day in the Life program, an approach to participatory air monitoring that engages youth in collecting data that they can then analyze and use to take action. Academics partnered with Los Angeles-based youth environmental justice organizations to combine personal air monitoring, participatory science, and digital storytelling to build capacity to address local air quality issues. (Full citation: Johnston, et al. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(1), 93)

Books

Citizen Science by Alan Irwin We are all concerned by the environmental threats facing us today. Environmental issues are a major area of concern for policy makers, industrialists and public groups of many different kinds. While science seems central to our understanding of such threats, the statements of scientists are increasingly open to challenge in this area. Meanwhile, citizens may find themselves labelled as `ignorant' in environmental matters. In Citizen Science Alan Irwin provides a much needed route through the fraught relationship between science, the public and the environmental threat.
ISBN: 0415115485
Publication Date: 1995-12-04
Citizen Science by Janis L. Dickinson (Editor); Rick Bonney (Editor); Richard Louv (Foreword by); John W. Fitzpatrick (Afterword by) Citizen science enlists members of the public to make and record useful observations, such as counting birds in their backyards, watching for the first budding leaf in spring, or measuring local snowfall. The large numbers of volunteers who participate in projects such as Project FeederWatch or Project BudBurst collect valuable research data, which, when pooled together, create an enormous body of scientific data on a vast geographic scale. In return, such projects aim to increase participants' connections to science, place, and nature, while supporting science literacy and environmental stewardship. In Citizen Science, experts from a variety of disciplines--including scientists and education specialists working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where many large citizen science programs use birds as proxies for biodiversity--share their experiences of creating and implementing successful citizen science projects, primarily those that use massive data sets gathered by citizen scientists to better understand the impact of environmental change.
ISBN: 9780801449116
Publication Date: 2012-04-24
Citizen Science: how ordinary people are changing the face of discovery by Caren Cooper Think you need a degree in science to contribute to important scientific discoveries? Think again. All around the world, in fields ranging from astronomy to zoology, millions of everyday people are choosing to participate in the scientific process. Working in cooperation with scientists in pursuit of information, innovation, and discovery, these volunteers are following protocols, collecting and reviewing data, and sharing their observations. They are our neighbors, our in-laws, and people in the office down the hall. Their story, along with the story of the social good that can result from citizen science, has largely been untold, until now.Citizen scientists are challenging old notions about who can conduct research, where knowledge can be acquired, and even how solutions to some of our biggest societal problems might emerge. In telling their story, Cooper will inspire readers to rethink their own assumptions about the role that individuals can play in gaining scientific understanding and putting that understanding to use as stewards of our world. Citizen Science will be a rallying call-to-arms, and will also function as an authoritative resource for those inspired by the featured stories and message. 
ISBN: 9781468308679
Publication Date: 2016-12-20
Citizen Voices by Louise Phillips (Editor); Anabela Carvalho (Editor); Julie Doyle (Editor) This volume explores the ways in which citizen voices on science and environmental issues are articulated, heard, marginalized, and silenced in mass media, policymaking, and other public venues. In a range of case studies from countries across Europe and North America, contributors offer empirical insights about the articulation of citizen voices, as well as citizens' scope for action in different national, cultural, and institutional contexts. Drawing on science and technology, environmental studies, and media and communication studies, they also present methods for foregrounding the role of communication in scientific and environmental governance.
ISBN: 9781841506210
Publication Date: 2012-12-15
The Crowd and the Cosmos by Chris Lintott In this book, Lintott describes the exciting discoveries that people all over the world have made, from galaxies to pulsars, exoplanets to moons, and from penguin behavior to old ship's logs. This approach builds on a long history of so-called "citizen science," given new power by fast internet and distributed data. Discovery is no longer the remit only of scientists in specialist labs or academics in ivory towers. It's something we can all take part in. As Lintott shows, it's a wonderful way to engage with science, yielding new insights daily. You, too, can help explore the Universe in your lunch hour.
ISBN: 0198842228
Publication Date: 2020-01-01
Crowdsourcing by Daren C. Brabham Ever since the term “crowdsourcing” was coined in 2006 by Wired writer Jeff Howe, group activities ranging from the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary to the choosing of new colors for M&Ms have been labeled with this most buzz-generating of media buzzwords. In this accessible but authoritative account, grounded in the empirical literature, Daren Brabham explains what crowdsourcing is, what it is not, and how it works.
ISBN: 9780262518475
Publication Date: 2013-05-10
The Incidental Steward by Akiko Busch; Debby Cotter Kaspari (Illustrator) A search for a radio-tagged Indiana bat roosting in the woods behind her house in New York’s Hudson Valley led Akiko Busch to assorted other encounters with the natural world—local ecological monitoring projects, community-organized cleanup efforts, and data-driven citizen science research. Whether it is pulling up water chestnuts in the Hudson River, measuring beds of submerged aquatic vegetation, or searching out vernal pools, all are efforts that illuminate the role of ordinary citizens as stewards of place. In this elegantly written book, Busch highlights factors that distinguish twenty-first-century citizen scientists from traditional amateur naturalists: a greater sense of urgency, helpful new technologies, and the expanded possibilities of crowdsourcing.
ISBN: 9780300178791
Publication Date: 2013-04-22
Learning Through Citizen Science by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Science Education; Committee on Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning; Kenne Ann Dibner (Editor); Rajul Pandya (Editor) In the last twenty years, citizen science has blossomed as a way to engage a broad range of individuals in doing science. Citizen science projects focus on, but are not limited to, nonscientists participating in the processes of scientific research, with the intended goal of advancing and using scientific knowledge. A rich range of projects extend this focus in myriad directions, and the boundaries of citizen science as a field are not clearly delineated. Citizen science involves a growing community of professional practitioners, participants, and stakeholders, and a thriving collection of projects. While citizen science is often recognized for its potential to engage the public in science, it is also uniquely positioned to support and extend participants (TM) learning in science. Contemporary understandings of science learning continue to advance. Indeed, modern theories of learning recognize that science learning is complex and multifaceted. Learning is affected by factors that are individual, social, cultural, and institutional, and learning occurs in virtually any context and at every age. Current understandings of science learning also suggest that science learning extends well beyond content knowledge in a domain to include understanding of the nature and methods of science. Learning Through Citizen Science: Enhancing Opportunities by Design discusses the potential of citizen science to support science learning and identifies promising practices and programs that exemplify the promising practices. This report also lays out a research agenda that can fill gaps in the current understanding of how citizen science can support science learning and enhance science education.
ISBN: 0309479169
Publication Date: 2019-01-28
The Librarian’s Guide to Citizen Science: Understanding, planning, and sustaining ongoing engagement in citizen science at your library Libraries are quickly becoming community hubs for citizen science. Your library may already be involved in innovative citizen science programming. If so, bravo! For countless others, citizen science is still a bit of a mystery. We created this guide to help you navigate the rapidly changing landscape, access resources, learn about projects and programs, and explore a menu of opportunities to bring citizen science to your library.
Publication Date: 2019
The Purple Martin: how citizen scientists and colony landlords are saving a favorite American bird by Robin Doughty This book explores the unique relationship humans have established with the Purple Martin whereby people have provided nest cavities for martins during the birds summer stay in North America. The narrative describes and discusses efforts to conserve birds by improving nesting success, especially in regard to competition from alien species and native predators. Recent efforts to increase populations, notably along the edge of the martins range, include individuals, and organisations, that exchange information about caring for the birds. This renewed interest has resulted in innovations about feeding birds during inclement weather, seeking out roost sites in order to protect migrating birds, gathering information about where birds go in South America during the non- breeding season, and identifying what dangers they face in their winter quarters. The book describes the number of martin species and their basic biology, and it investigates the history of human interaction with the bird, especially how people have gathered information that so-called landlords draw upon in order to manage their bird colonies. Increasing numbers of devotees gather data on nesting and fledging rates in order to track bird numbers. These citizen scientists not only furnish data for ornithologists to incorporate into regional programs to protect migratory birds, but also have improved methods for managing nesting birds, building up numbers in backyard colonies, and advising colleagues how best to help conserve the species.
ISBN: 9781935778325
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Quality Assurance Handbook and Guidance Documents for Citizen Science Projects This handbook is for organizations that are starting or growing a citizen science project, and where transparency in the scientific methods for collecting the data are central to the outcome of the project. It has two companion documents: Examples and Templates. EPA has also provided a Word version of the templates to allow you to customize them.
Publication Date: 2019
Reinventing Discovery by Michael Nielsen In Reinventing Discovery, Michael Nielsen argues that we are living at the dawn of the most dramatic change in science in more than 300 years. This change is being driven by powerful new cognitive tools, enabled by the internet, which are greatly accelerating scientific discovery.
ISBN: 9780691148908
Publication Date: 2011-10-23
Toxic Truths by Thom Davies (Editor); Alice Mah (Editor) Debates over science, facts, and values are pivotal in the struggle for environmental justice. For decades, environmental justice activists have campaigned against the misuse of science, engaging in community-led citizen science that champions knowledge produced by and for ordinary people living with environmental risks and hazards. However, post-truth politics have threatened science itself. Toxic truths examines the relationship between environmental justice and citizen science, focusing on enduring issues and new challenges in a post-truth age. The volume features a range of community-based participatory environmental health and justice research projects that seek to establish different ways of sensing, witnessing, and interpreting environmental injustice. From struggles in American hog country and contaminated indigenous communities, to local environmental controversies in Spain and China, this volume examines political strategies for seeking environmental justice. With international, interdisciplinary contributions from distinguished authors, emerging scholars and community activists, Toxic truths is essential reading for those seeking to understand the cutting edge of citizen science and activism around the world.
ISBN: 9781526137029
Publication Date: 2020-07-14