scholarly journals Reaching the limits of co-creation in citizen science — exemplified by the linguistic citizen humanities project ‘On everyone’s mind and lips — German in Austria’

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. A05
Author(s):  
Barbara Heinisch
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Research Process ◽  
German Language ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Willingness To Contribute ◽  
Analyze Data

Co-creation aims at integrating citizens in the entire research process. The citizen linguistics project German in Austria tests this approach in the humanities based on the assumption that language is ubiquitous. The project combines different forms of public participation, including a co-created format, where citizens can raise (and answer) research questions about the German language in Austria and a linguistic treasure hunt, where citizens collect and analyze data on linguistic landscapes. However, co-creation was hard to implement. Despite a high number of participants, their willingness to contribute to more than one research step was low.

scholarly journals Awareness, views and experiences of Citizen Science among Swedish researchers — two surveys

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. A10
Author(s):  
Pavel Bína ◽  
Fredrik Brounéus ◽  
Dick Kasperowski ◽  
Niclas Hagen ◽  
Martin Bergman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Quality ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Agricultural Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
External Communication ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The University

In 2021 Sweden’s first national portal for citizen science will be launched to help researchers practice sustainable and responsible citizen science with different societal stakeholders. This paper present findings from two surveys on attitudes and experiences of citizen science among researchers at Swedish universities. Both surveys provided input to the development of the national portal, for which researchers are a key stakeholder group. The first survey (n=636) was exclusively focused on citizen science and involved researchers and other personnel at Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). 63% of respondents at SLU had heard about citizen science (CS) prior to the survey; however a majority of these (61%) had not been involved in any CS initiative themselves. Dominant reasons for researchers choosing a CS approach in projects were to enable collection of large amounts of data (68%), improving the knowledge base (59%), improving data quality (25%), promote participants’ understanding in research (21%) and promote collaboration between the university and society (20%). The other survey (n=3 699) was on the broader topic of communication and open science, including questions on CS, and was distributed to researchers from all Swedish universities. 61% of respondents had not been engaged in any research projects where volunteers were involved in the process. A minority of the researchers had participated in projects were volunteers had collected data (18%), been involved in internal or external communication (16%), contributed project ideas (14%) and/or formulated research questions (11%). Nearly four out of ten respondents (37%) had heard about CS prior to the survey. The researchers were more positive towards having parts of the research process open to citizen observation, rather than open to citizen influence/participation. Our results show that CS is a far from well-known concept among Swedish researchers. And while those who have heard about CS are generally positive towards it, researchers overall are hesitant to invite citizens to take part in the research process.

scholarly journals Towards a Transdisciplinary Theoretical Framework of Citizen Science: Results from a Meta-Review Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7904
Author(s):  
Andrea Spasiano ◽  
Salvatore Grimaldi ◽  
Alessio Maria Braccini ◽  
Fernando Nardi
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Review Analysis ◽  
Meta Review ◽  
Application Fields

This work intends to lay the foundations for a theoretical framework of citizen science combining social and organizational implications with the support of information technologies. The proposed theoretical framework moves towards a shared and common research process between experts and citizens to deal with environmental and social challenges. The role and capacity of online communities is explored and their engagement capacity by means of web-based digital platforms supporting crowdsourcing activities. In this contribution, authors highlight the most common practices, methods and issues of citizen science approaches adopted from multidisciplinary application fields to obtain insights for designing a new participative approach for organizational studies. To reach this goal, authors illustrate the results of a systematic meta-review analysis, consisting of an accurate selection and revision of journal review articles in order to highlight concepts, methods, research design approaches and tools adopted in citizen science approaches.

Citizens of the future

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-144
Author(s):  
Colin Milburn ◽  
Melissa Wills
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Responsible Innovation ◽  
Science Projects ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Utopian Thought

Over the last decade, a variety of ‘citizen science’ projects have turned to video games and other tools of gamification to enrol participants and to encourage public engagement with scientific research questions. This article examines the significance of sf in the field of citizen science, focusing on projects such as Eyewire, Be a Martian!, Sea Hero Quest, Play to Cure: Genes in Space, Forgotten Island and the ‘Project Discovery’ experiments in EVE Online. The sf stories that frame these projects often allegorise the neoliberal assumptions and immaterial labour practices of citizen science, even while seeming to hide or disguise them. At the same time, the fictional frames enable players to imagine social and technical innovations that, while not necessarily achievable in the present, nevertheless point to a future of democratic science, social progress and responsible innovation - blips of utopian thought from the zones of crowdsourced labour.

scholarly journals Is Banning Significance Testing the Best Way to Improve Applied Social Science Research? – Questions on

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Thees F Spreckelsen ◽  
Mariska Van Der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Significance Testing ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Applied Social Science

Significance testing is widely used in social science research. It has long been criticised on statistical grounds and problems in the research practice. This paper is an applied researchers’ response to Gorard's (2016) ‘Damaging real lives through obstinacy: re-emphasising why significance testing is wrong’ in Sociological Research Online 21(1). He participates in this debate concluding from the issues raised that the use and teaching of significance testing should cease immediately. In that, he goes beyond a mere ban of significance testing, but claims that researchers still doing this are being unethical. We argue that his attack on applied scientists is unlikely to improve social science research and we believe he does not sufficiently prove his claims. In particular we are concerned that with a narrow focus on statistical significance, Gorard misses alternative, if not more important, explanations for the often-lamented problems in social science research. Instead, we argue that it is important to take into account the full research process, not just the step of data analysis, to get a better idea of the best evidence regarding a hypothesis.

scholarly journals Citizen Science in Human Medicine and the Use of Software-Systems: A Rapid Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannik Schaaf ◽  
Michaela Neff ◽  
Joerg Scheidt ◽  
Michael Steglich ◽  
Holger Storf
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Rare Diseases ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Human Medicine ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Science Projects

Citizen science allows involving interested citizen in the entire research process in science. In the past, various citizen science projects have been performed in different research fields, especially in human medicine. We conducted a rapid scoping review to determine which citizen projects in human medicine already used software-based systems to engage citizens in the research process. Furthermore, we analysed which of the software-systems are publicly available, especially in the field of rare diseases, how citizens can participate using those tools and whether the usability was rated by the participants. To get insights for our project “SelEe (Seltene Erkrankungen bürgerwissenschaftlich erforschen)”, which is a citizen science project in rare diseases funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), we aimed to identify projects in this research area. We searched PubMed for articles between 2011 and 2021 and performed a title- and abstract screening, as well as a full-text screening. Finally, 12 studies were identified in different research areas like public health, genetic research and infectious diseases. We could not identify any study directly associated with rare diseases. None of the studies investigated usability of those systems. Furthermore, five publicly available citizen science software-systems were identified. Three of them are general systems that allow creating, operating, managing citizen science projects and including citizens in the research process. In further investigations, we will check and compare these systems, if they are appropriate for use in our SelEe-project.

Promoting Undergraduate Student Research Collaboration: Faculty Perceptions of Benefits and Challenges

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Catherine Tompkins ◽  
Anissa Rogers ◽  
Harriet Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
Social Work Faculty ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Testing Instruments

Social work faculty from across the country (N=95) were surveyed to explore their perceptions about involving undergraduate students in their research projects. Results indicated that 58% of the respondents used undergraduate students in their research. Reported benefits of this involvement included that students brought enthusiasm, a willingness to learn, and a fresh vision to the research process. Students also brought social work skills and were helpful in conducting literature reviews, designing and pilot testing instruments, collecting and analyzing data, assisting with manuscripts, and presenting at conferences. Challenges reported by respondents included time and financial constraints for students and faculty as well as students' lack of understanding of and confidence about the research process. Implications are discussed, and further research questions are proposed.

Setting Up an Online Survey Instrument for Effective Quantitative Cross-Tabulation Analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-29
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Survey Instrument ◽  
Research Context ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Cross Tabulation ◽  
Analyze Data

The building of an online survey instrument involves sophisticated understandings of the research context, research design, research questions, and other elements. A lesser observed need is to consider what types of data analytics will be applied to the findings. With beginning-to-end online survey research suites, it becomes all the more necessary to think through the process from beginning to end in order to create an instrument that achieves all the necessary aims of the research. After all, improper online survey instrument designs will result in makework when it comes time to analyze data and will foreclose on particular data analytics opportunities. (Such instruments also will not have second or third uses after the first one-off.) This chapter explores how to build an effective online survey instrument to enable a quantitative cross tabulation analysis with the built-in analysis Qualtrics.

Thinking Process in Legal Research

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
P. Ishwara Bhat
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Thinking ◽  
Inductive Reasoning ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Thinking Process ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Problematic Situations

The second chapter discusses the way and means of carrying out the thinking process in legal research. Thinking is always in response to memory or a situation that the mind comes across. The three important processes of thinking laid down by scholars are: reflective thinking, epistemological steps, and the scientific method. Each poses central research questions in response to problematic situations or difficulties and tries to find answers by expanding the thinking process. The formulation of a tentative answer called hypothesis, working about its viability in light of exhaustive collection of data, and drawing inferences are the phases of the research process. There are subtle differences and common features amidst these approaches, which the present chapter closely compares and contrasts. It also discusses the relation between fact and theory, the differences between deductive and inductive reasoning, and the method of correlating and applying them in the course of legal research.

scholarly journals Tourism and Security in Nepal

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-47
Author(s):  
Rup Kumar Chhetri
Keyword(s):  
Business Education ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Cognitive Improvement ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
Education Culture

This paper discusses the concept of tourism and security in Nepal and focuses on the association in between tourism and security aspects. Tourism is important for leisure, business, education, culture and recreation. Tourism industry is a fast developing sector for the economy worldwide and becoming a popular global leisure activity. As a fast growing industry in the today’s world, tourism industry events are getting more attraction for study and appropriate intervention. The key question this paper raises is whether there is association between tourism and security in Nepal. It answers rationally to its prime research questions like; what are the dimensions of tourism and security in Nepal? What is the association in between tourism and security in Nepal? In order to look for the answers of these questions, Thamel area was chosen for study site as it is popular among people and the major tourism hub in Nepal. The findings of the study show varied association in between tourism sector and tourism security sector on the specifics such as tourism, hospitality, events and security in Nepal. Although tourism enterprises increasingly realize the aspects of tourism, hospitality, events management and relevant security parameters, but the extent to which they are strategically used varies. The assessment revealed the impacts of tourism on security aspects and vice versa. So, the impacts of security situation on tourism sector have a certain and intermingled association. Even the findings aligned with above said statement which reflects the limitations and gap in between the tourism sector and tourism security sector in term of setups, coordination and execution. That is why, it roves and looking for the rational, empirical and cognitive improvement and development on those identified aspects which are keenly observed during the research process.

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