Engaging the Public: Citizen Science

The peacock butterfly is abundant and widespread in Europe. It is generally believed to be univoltine (one generation per year): adults born in summer overwinter and reappear again in spring to reproduce. However, recent flight patterns in western Europe mostly show three peaks during the year: a first one in spring (overwintering butterflies), a second one in early summer (offspring of the spring generation), and a third one in autumn. It was thus far unclear whether this autumn flight peak was a second new generation or consisted of butterflies flying again in autumn after a summer rest (aestivation). The life cycle of one of Europe’s most common butterflies is therefore still surprisingly inadequately understood. We used hundreds of thousands of observations and thousands of pictures submitted by naturalists from the public to the online portal observation.orgin Belgium and analyzed relations between flight patterns, condition (wear), reproductive cycles, peak abundances, and phenology to clarify the current life history. We demonstrate that peacocks have shifted towards two new generations per year in recent decades. Mass citizen science data in online portals has become increasingly important in tracking the response of biodiversity to rapid environmental changes such as climate change.

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Transference of Citizen Science Program Impacts: A Theory Grounded in Public Participation in Scientific Research

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13080339 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 339

Author(s):

Louise I. Lynch-O’Brien ◽

Wayne A. Babchuk ◽

Jenny M. Dauer ◽

Tiffany Heng-Moss ◽

Doug Golick

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Social Process ◽

Informal Science Education ◽

Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽

Science Program ◽

Program Leaders ◽

The Public ◽

The Social ◽

Added Benefit

Citizen science is known for increasing the geographic, spatial, and temporal scale from which scientists can gather data. It is championed for its potential to provide experiential learning opportunities to the public. Documentation of educational outcomes and benefits for citizen scientists continues to grow. This study proposes an added benefit of these collaborations: the transference of program impacts to individuals outside of the program. The experiences of fifteen citizen scientists in entomology citizen science programs were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. We propose the substantive-level theory of transference to describe the social process by which the educational and attitudinal impacts intended by program leaders for the program participants are filtered by citizen scientists and transferred to others. This process involves individual and external phases, each with associated actions. Transference occurred in participants who had maintained a long-term interest in nature, joined a citizen science program, shared science knowledge and experiences, acquired an expert role to others, and influenced change in others. Transference has implications for how citizen scientists are perceived by professional communities, understanding of the broader impacts and contributions of citizen science to wicked problems, program evaluation, and the design of these programs as informal science education opportunities.

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Evaluating human–coyote encounters in an urban landscape using citizen science

Journal of Urban Ecology ◽

10.1093/jue/juaa032 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David Drake ◽

Shelli Dubay ◽

Maximilian L Allen

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Time Of Day ◽

Human Observer ◽

Public Outreach ◽

The Public ◽

Paved Road ◽

Almost All ◽

Human Wildlife Conflict

Abstract Coyotes are ubiquitous in habitats across North America, including in urban areas. Reviews of human–coyote encounters are limited in scope and analysis and predominantly document encounters that tend to be negative, such as human–wildlife conflict, rather than benign experiences. The objective of our study was to use citizen science reports of human–coyote interactions entered into iNaturalist to better understand the range of first person accounts of human–coyote encounters in Madison, WI. We report 398 citizen science accounts of human–coyote encounters in the Madison area between October 2015 and March 2018. Most human–coyote encounters occurred during coyote breeding season and half of all encounters occurred in moderate development land cover. Estimated level of coyote aggressiveness varied significantly, with 90% of citizen scientists scoring estimated coyote aggression as a 0 and 7% scoring estimated aggression as a 1 on a 0–5 scale (with 0 being calm and 5 being aggressive). Our best performing model explaining the estimated distance between the human observer and a coyote (our proxy for a human–coyote encounter) included the variables distance to nearest paved road, biological season of the year relative to coyote life history, and time of day/night. We demonstrate that human–coyote interactions are regularly more benign than negative, with almost all first-hand reported human–coyote encounters being benign. We encourage public outreach focusing on practices that can foster benign encounters when educating the public to facilitate human–coyote coexistence.

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Citizen science and the public nature of climate action

Polar Geography ◽

10.1080/1088937x.2019.1597396 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 176-195 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mark Groulx ◽

LeeAnn Fishback ◽

Amanda Winegardner

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

The Public ◽

Public Nature ◽

Climate Action

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A Framework of Observer-Based Biases in Citizen Science Biodiversity Monitoring: Semi-Structuring Unstructured Biodiversity Monitoring Protocols

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.693602 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Ofer Arazy ◽

Dan Malkinson

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Temporal Distribution ◽

Biodiversity Monitoring ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Science Data ◽

The Public ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Monitoring Protocols ◽

And Behavior

Citizen science, whereby ordinary citizens participate in scientific endeavors, is widely used for biodiversity monitoring, most commonly by relying on unstructured monitoring approaches. Notwithstanding the potential of unstructured citizen science to engage the public and collect large amounts of biodiversity data, observers’ considerations regarding what, where and when to monitor result in biases in the aggregate database, thus impeding the ability to draw conclusions about trends in species’ spatio-temporal distribution. Hence, the goal of this study is to enhance our understanding of observer-based biases in citizen science for biodiversity monitoring. Toward this goals we: (a) develop a conceptual framework of observers’ decision-making process along the steps of monitor – > record and share, identifying the considerations that take place at each step, specifically highlighting the factors that influence the decisions of whether to record an observation (b) propose an approach for operationalizing the framework using a targeted and focused questionnaire, which gauges observers’ preferences and behavior throughout the decision-making steps, and (c) illustrate the questionnaire’s ability to capture the factors driving observer-based biases by employing data from a local project on the iNaturalist platform. Our discussion highlights the paper’s theoretical contributions and proposes ways in which our approach for semi-structuring unstructured citizen science data could be used to mitigate observer-based biases, potentially making the collected biodiversity data usable for scientific and regulatory purposes.

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Exploring citizen science in post-socialist space: Uncovering its hidden character in the Czech Republic

Moravian Geographical Reports ◽

10.2478/mgr-2019-0019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 241-253 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Barbora Duží ◽

Robert Osman ◽

Jiří Lehejček ◽

Eva Nováková ◽

Pavel Taraba ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Czech Republic ◽

Citizen Science ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

The Public ◽

Public Representation ◽

Science Projects ◽

Definition Of ◽

High Level ◽

Search Approach ◽

Insight Into

Abstract Citizen science is a relatively new phenomenon in the Czech Republic and currently a general overview of existing citizen science projects is not available. This presents the challenge to uncover the ‘hidden’ citizen science landscapes. The main objective of this paper is to explore the (public) representation of citizen science (CS) projects and to describe their heterogeneity. The study aims to answer the question of what type of projects in the Czech Republic meet the definition of citizen science. Based on a specific methodological data-base search approach, we compiled a set of CS projects (N = 73). During the classification process, two general citizen science categories were identified. The first group (N = 46) consists of “pure” CS projects with a prevalence towards the natural sciences, principally ornithology, and thus corresponding to general European trends. Citizens usually participate in such research in the form of data collection and basic interpretation, and a high level of cooperation between academia and NGOs was detected. The second group of “potential” CS projects (N = 27) entails various forms of public participation in general, frequently coordinated by NGOs. Based on these results, we discuss the position of citizen science in the Czech Republic, including socially-oriented citizen science. Further research is strongly encouraged to achieve a more in-depth insight into this social phenomenon.

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The ‘Astronomy for the Public’ Task Force

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s174392131401206x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 10 (H16) ◽

pp. 550-551

Author(s):

Carolina J. Ödman-Govender ◽

Ian E. Robson

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

General Public ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Task Force ◽

Scientific Thinking ◽

The Public ◽

Raising Awareness ◽

Set Up ◽

Force Range ◽

The Universe

AbstractOne of the ways in which astronomy can stimulate development is by raising awareness of our place in the universe among the general public. This contributes to inspiring people and brings the scientific community and scientific thinking closer to everyone. The IAU OAD has set up one task force dedicated to ‘Astronomy for the Public’. Proposed activities of the task force range from low-tech astronomy outreach to citizen science. We will present the task force, its objectives and potential developmental impacts for the first few years of operation.

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Citizen as Sensors' Commitment in Urban Public Action

International Journal of E-Planning Research ◽

10.4018/ijepr.2019100103 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 42-59 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gwendoline l'Her ◽

Myriam Servières ◽

Daniel Siret

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Urban Air Quality ◽

Urban Air ◽

The Public ◽

Public Action ◽

Quality Issue ◽

Data Analyses ◽

The Impact

Based on a case study in Rennes, the article presents how a group of urban public actors re-uses methods and technology from citizen sciences to raise the urban air quality issue in the public debate. The project gives a group of inhabitants the opportunity to follow air quality training and proceed PM2.5µm measurements. The authors question the impact of the ongoing hybridisation between citizen science and urban public action on participants' commitment. The authors present how the use of PM2.5-sensors during 11 weeks led to a disengagement phenomenon, even if the authors observe a strong participation to workshops. These results come from an interdisciplinary methodology using observations, interviews, and data analyses.

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The Australian Roadkill Reporting Project—Applying Integrated Professional Research and Citizen Science to Monitor and Mitigate Roadkill in Australia

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10071112 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 1112

Author(s):

Bruce Englefield ◽

Melissa Starling ◽

Bethany Wilson ◽

Caidyrn Roder ◽

Paul McGreevy

Keyword(s):

Population Dynamics ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Value Added ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Activity Levels ◽

Significant Finding ◽

The Public ◽

Distribution Mapping ◽

Professional Research

Australia has no national roadkill monitoring scheme. To address this gap in knowledge, a roadkill reporting application (app) was developed to allow members of the public to join professional researchers in gathering Australian data. The app is used to photograph roadkill and simultaneously records the GPS location, time and date. These data are uploaded immediately to a website for data management. To illustrate the capacity to facilitate cost-effective mitigation measures the article focuses on two roadkill hotspots—in Queensland and Tasmania. In total, 1609 reports were gathered in the first three months of the project. They include data on mammals (n = 1203, 75%), birds (n = 125, 7.8%), reptiles (n = 79, 4.9%), amphibians (n = 4, 0.025%), unidentified (n = 189, 11.8%) and unserviceable ones (n = 9). A significant finding is variance in the distribution of mammals and birds at different times of day. These findings reflect diurnal variation in the activity levels of different species and underline the need for data on a targeted species to be collected at appropriate times of day. By continuing to facilitate roadkill monitoring, it is anticipated that the data generated by the app will directly increase knowledge of roadkill numbers and hotspots. Indirectly, it will provide value-added information on animal behaviour, disease and population dynamics as well as for species distribution mapping.

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Credit for and Control of Research Outputs in Genomic Citizen Science

Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics ◽

10.1146/annurev-genom-083117-021812 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 465-489

Author(s):

Christi J. Guerrini ◽

Jorge L. Contreras

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Scientific Discovery ◽

Personal Data ◽

Genetic Data ◽

Biomedical Sciences ◽

Research Subjects ◽

Human Genomics ◽

The Public ◽

Legal Foundations ◽

And Control

Citizen science encompasses activities with scientific objectives in which members of the public participate as more than passive research subjects from whom personal data or biospecimens are collected and analyzed by others. Citizen science is increasingly common in the biomedical sciences, including the fields of genetics and human genomics. Genomic citizen science initiatives are diverse and involve citizen scientists in collecting genetic data, solving genetic puzzles, and conducting experiments in community laboratories. At the same time that genomic citizen science is presenting new opportunities for individuals to participate in scientific discovery, it is also challenging norms regarding the manner in which scientific research outputs are managed. In this review, we present a typology of genomic citizen science initiatives, describe ethical and legal foundations for recognizing genomic citizen scientists’ claims of credit for and control of research outputs, and detail how such claims are or might be addressed in practice across a variety of initiatives.

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