Embedding Citizen Science in Research: Forms of engagement, scientific output and values for science, policy and society

This paper addresses emerging forms of Citizen Science (Citizen Science), and discusses their value for science, policy and society. It clarifies how the term Citizen Science is used and identifies different forms of Citizen Science. This is important, since with blurred distinctions there is a risk of both overrating and underestimating the value of Citizen Science and of misinterpreting what makes a significant contribution to scientific endeavour.The paper identifies three main forms of citizen science 1) Citizen Science as a research method, aiming for scientific output, 2) Citizen Science as public engagement, aiming to establish legitimacy for science and science policy in society, and, 3) Citizen Science as civic mobilization, aiming for legal or political influence in relation to specific issues. In terms of scientific output, the first form of Citizen Science exceeds the others in terms of scientific peer-reviewed articles. These projects build on strict protocols and rules for participation and rely on mass inclusion to secure the quality of contributions. Volunteers are invited to pursue very delimited tasks, defined by the scientists.The value of the three distinct forms of Citizen Science –for science, for policy and for society, is discussed to situate Citizen Science in relation to current policy initiatives in Europe and in the US. In quantitative terms the US, and particularly the NSF have so far taken a lead in allocating research funding to Citizen Science projects (primarily of the first form), however, the White House has recently issued a memorandum addressing societal and scientific challenges through citizen science covering all three forms discussed in this paper. As Citizen Science is currently being launched as a way to change the very landscape of science, important gaps in research are identified and policy recommendations are provided, in order for policy makers to be able to assess and anticipate the value of different forms of Citizen Science with regard to future research policy.

Download Full-text

Corruption in Construction Projects: Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084400 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4400

Author(s):

Zhao Zhai ◽

Ming Shan ◽

Amos Darko ◽

Albert P. C. Chan

Keyword(s):

Construction Projects ◽

Research Policy ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Future Research ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Research Areas ◽

Body Of Knowledge ◽

Emerging Trends ◽

Global Research

Corruption has been identified as a major problem in construction projects. It can jeopardize the success of these projects. Consequently, corruption has garnered significant attention in the construction industry over the past two decades, and several studies on corruption in construction projects (CICP) have been conducted. Previous efforts to analyze and review this body of knowledge have been manual, qualitative and subjective, thus prone to bias and limited in the number of reviewed studies. There remains a lack of inclusive, quantitative, objective and computational analysis of global CICP research to inform future research, policy and practice. This study aims to address this lack by providing the first inclusive bibliometric study exploring the state-of-the-art of global CICP research. To this end, a quantitative and objective technique aided by CiteSpace was used to systematically and computationally analyze a large corpus of 542 studies retrieved from the Web of Science and published from 2000 to 2020. The findings revealed major and influential CICP research journals, persons, institutions, countries, references and areas of focus, as well as revealing how these interact with each other in research networks. This study contributes to the in-depth understanding of global research on CICP. By highlighting the principal research areas, gaps, emerging trends and directions, as well as patterns in CICP research, the findings could help researchers, practitioners and policy makers position their future CICP research and/or mitigation strategies.

Download Full-text

Quality of Mobile Apps for Care Partners of People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: Mobile App Rating Scale Evaluation (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.33863 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole E Werner ◽

Janetta C Brown ◽

Priya Loganathar ◽

Richard J Holden

Keyword(s):

Rating Scale ◽

Mobile Apps ◽

Mobile App ◽

Future Research ◽

App Development ◽

Care Partners ◽

Acceptable Quality ◽

The Us ◽

Google Play

BACKGROUND The over 11 million care partners in the US who provide care to people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) cite persistent and pervasive unmet needs related to all aspects of their caregiving role. The proliferation of mobile applications (apps) for care partners has potential to meet the care partners’ needs, but the quality of apps is unknown. OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to 1) evaluate the quality of publicly available apps for care partners of people living with ADRD and 2) identify design features of low- and high-quality apps to guide future research and app development. METHODS We searched the US Apple and Google Play app stores with the criteria that the app needed to be 1) available in US Google play or Apple app stores, 2) directly accessible to users “out of the box”, 3) primarily intended for use by an informal (family, friend) caregiver or caregivers of a person with dementia. The included apps were then evaluated using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), which includes descriptive app classification and rating using 23 items across five dimensions: engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information, and subjective quality. Next, we computed descriptive statistics for each rating. To identify recommendations for future research and app development, we categorized rater comments on the score driving factors for each item and what the app could have done to improve the score for that item. RESULTS We evaluated 17 apps (41% iOS only, 12% Android only, 47% both iOS and Android). We found that on average, the apps are of minimally acceptable quality. Although we identified apps above and below minimally acceptable quality, many apps had broken features and were rated as below acceptable for engagement and information. CONCLUSIONS Minimally acceptable quality is likely insufficient to meet care partner needs. Future research should establish minimum quality standards across dimensions for mobile apps for care partners. The design features of high-quality apps we identified in this research can provide the foundation for benchmarking those standards.

Download Full-text

Reviews of evidence

Epidemiological Studies: A Practical Guide ◽

10.1093/med/9780198814726.003.0021 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 221-232

Author(s):

Alan J. Silman ◽

Gary J. Macfarlane ◽

Tatiana Macfarlane

Keyword(s):

Information Overload ◽

Evidence Synthesis ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Future Research ◽

Scientific Journals ◽

Search Terms ◽

The Us ◽

Scientific Topic

The preceding chapters have focused on the generation of scientific evidence using epidemiological studies. Here the emphasis is on bringing together evidence (evidence synthesis) to inform future research and health policies. The chapter considers levels and quality of scientific evidence and describes in detail how to conduct a systematic review. It reviews the ways of summarizing and evaluating evidence from epidemiological studies. Summary of evidence is needed in everyday clinical practice and for public health. We live in a time of information overload, and it is impossible to read all the available scientific journals, even on a narrow scientific topic. Simply using search terms such as ‘cancer’ will result in millions of results in Google Scholar or PubMed (a service of the US National Library of Medicine®) database. Given the ever-increasing volume of medical literature and time constraints, summary of evidence plays a big role in decision-making.

Download Full-text

Better Sleep Experience for the Critically Ill: A Comprehensive Strategy for Designing Hospital Soundscapes

Multimodal Technologies and Interaction ◽

10.3390/mti3020036 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 36 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dilip Birdja ◽

Elif Özcan

Keyword(s):

Critical Care ◽

Medical Device ◽

Design Approach ◽

Future Research ◽

Comprehensive Strategy ◽

Research Directions ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Future Research Directions ◽

Knowledge Deficits

In this paper, the sleep phenomenon is considered in relation to critical care soundscapes with the intention to inform hospital management, medical device producers and policy makers regarding the complexity of the issue and possible modes of design interventions. We propose a comprehensive strategy based on soundscape design approach that facilitates a systematic way of tackling the auditory quality of critical care settings in favor of better patient sleep experience. Future research directions are presented to tackle the knowledge deficits in designing for critical care soundscapes that cater for patient sleep. The need for scientifically-informed design interventions for improving patient sleep experience in critical care is highlighted. The value of the soundscape design approach for resolving other sound-induced problems in critical care and how the approach allows for patient-centred innovation that is beyond the immediate sound issue are further discussed.

Download Full-text

Excellence or quality? Impact of the current competition regime on science and scientific publishing in Latin America and its implications for development

Current Sociology ◽

10.1177/0011392113512839 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 62 (5) ◽

pp. 647-665 ◽

Cited By ~ 67

Author(s):

Hebe Vessuri ◽

Jean-Claude Guédon ◽

Ana María Cetto

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Science Policy ◽

Research Policy ◽

Peripheral Region ◽

Management Tool ◽

Scientific Journals ◽

Scientific Publishing ◽

General Management ◽

The World

The current competition regime that characterizes international science is often presented as a quest for excellence. It diversely affects research in Latin America and research in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This article asks how this competition regime may orient the direction of research in Latin America, and to whose advantage. It is argued that, by relating excellence to quality differently, a research policy that seeks to improve the level of science in Latin America while preserving the possibility of solving problems relevant to the region can be designed. Competition, it is also argued, certainly has its place in science, but not as a general management tool, especially if the goal is to improve overall quality of science in Latin America. Scientific competition is largely managed through journals and their reputation. Therefore, designing a science policy for Latin America (and for any ‘peripheral’ region of the world) requires paying special attention to the mechanisms underpinning the production, circulation and consumption of scientific journals. So-called ‘international’ or ‘core’ journals are of particular interest as local, national, or even regional journals must struggle to find their place in this peculiar publishing eco-system.

Download Full-text

Using Twitter to better understand online patient experience sentiments in the US (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.10043 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Kara Sewalk ◽

Gaurav Tuli ◽

Yulin Hswen ◽

John S Brownstein ◽

Jared B Hawkins

Keyword(s):

Patient Experience ◽

Large Scale ◽

Survey Methods ◽

National Level ◽

Online Data ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Patient Views ◽

The Us

BACKGROUND Traditional large-scale assessments of patient care in the US have difficulty in representing all aspects of health, beyond hospital care. There are documented differences in access to healthcare across the US. It is important to understand disparities in healthcare to better inform policy makers and healthcare administrations to improve quality of care provided. Previous research indicates online data is available from Twitter about patient experiences and opinions of their healthcare. Understanding patient views through sentiment analyses of Twitter data can be used to supplement traditional feedback surveys. OBJECTIVE We aim to provide a characterization of patient experience sentiments across the US on Twitter over a four year period. METHODS We developed a set of software components to auto-label and examine the patient experience Twitter dataset. The set includes: (I) a classifier to determine patient experience tweets, (II) a geolocation inference engine for social data, (III) a modified version of a sentiment classifier from the literature, and (IV) another engine to determine if the tweet is from a metro or non-metro area. RESULTS Of the 27.3 million tweets collected between February 2013 and February 2017 using a set of patient experience related keywords, the classifier was able to identify 2,779,555 tweets that were labeled as patient experience. After running the patient experience tweets through the geolocation classifier, we identified 876,384 tweets by approximate location to use for spatial analyses. At the national level, we observed 27.7% of positive, 36.3% neutral, 36% of negative Patient Experience tweets. Overall, the average sentiment polarity shifted towards less negative every year across all the regions in the country. The patient experience tweet rate also decreased across all the states over the four year study period. We also observed the sentiment of tweets to have a lower negative fraction during daytime hours, whereas the sentiment of tweets posted between 8pm and 10am tend to have a higher negative fraction. Additionally, tweet sentiment varied by region and by metro vs. non-metro analyses. CONCLUSIONS This study presents methodologies for a deeper understanding of online discussion related to patient experience across space and time, and demonstrates how Twitter can provide a unique and unsolicited perspective from users, which may not be captured from traditional survey methods for understanding patient views.

Download Full-text

Measurement of quality of care for adjuvant chemotherapy of colorectal cancer

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2006.24.18_suppl.6071 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽

pp. 6071-6071

Author(s):

M. Morse ◽

R. Prosnitz ◽

C. Mantyh ◽

D. Fisher ◽

G. Samsa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽

Quality Care ◽

Future Research ◽

Inclusion Criteria ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Leverage Points ◽

Stage Iii Colon Cancer ◽

Crucial Component

6071 Background: Although adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) is a crucial component of the therapy for stage III colon cancer and stage II and III rectal cancer patients, little is known about how best to measure whether quality care is being delivered. We sought to provide policy-makers and stake-holders with an inventory of the available measures and their usefulness. Methods: The MEDLINE and Cochrane databases were searched for all publications which might contain quality measures (QMs) pertaining to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Our analysis was confined to QMs pertaining to adjuvant CT for CRC, based on US data, and published after 1990. Identified QMs were quantitatively rated based on the concepts of importance/usability, scientific acceptability, and validity or how well they had been tested. Results: 3,429 abstracts were reviewed, of which 843 articles underwent full text evaluation. Ultimately 74 articles met the established inclusion criteria for containing QMs, 32 of which pertained to adjuvant CT. These 32 articles contained 10 QMs, 8 of which had major flaws limiting their applicability. The two most ideal measures are presented in the table . Among the reasons some measures did not rate highly was the failure to utilize standard staging definitions or reliance on administrative inpatient databases, which do not account for chemotherapy administered on an out-patient basis. Conclusions: Very few measures of the quality of adjuvant CT for CRC have been published to date and fewer rate highly with regard to the concepts of importance/usability, scientific acceptability, and validity. Future research should focus on refining existing QMs and on developing new QMs which target important leverage points with respect to the provision of adjuvant therapy for CRC. [Table: see text] [Table: see text]

Download Full-text

Research Policy and Review 24. State Science Policy and Economic Development in the United States: A Critical Perspective

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1068/a200999 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 20 (8) ◽

pp. 999-1012 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

J Rees ◽

R Bradley

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Economic Development ◽

Science Policy ◽

Research Policy ◽

The United States ◽

Complex Nature ◽

Federal Spending ◽

Critical Perspective ◽

Development Policies ◽

The Us

The economic impact of two major recessions in the United States (in the 1970s and early 1980s), together with cutbacks in federal spending during the 1980s, have made individual states more aware of their comparative advantage both in economic and in political terms. As a result, states have become more explicitly concerned with their own science policies and with how technological innovation can enhance their prospects for economic development. In this paper we explore the complex nature of science policy in the US intergovernmental system, examine the rigorous resource allocation issues involved, and look at a number of different types of technology-based economic development policies that have to date grown around the country.

Download Full-text

Improving Data Quality in Citizen Science Apps for Conservation Biology

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.2.26665 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. e26665

Author(s):

Alan Stenhouse ◽

Philip Roetman ◽

Frank Grützner ◽

Tahlia Perry ◽

Lian Pin Koh

Keyword(s):

User Interface ◽

Data Quality ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Future Research ◽

Population Census ◽

Population Modelling ◽

App Development

Field data collection by Citizen Scientists has been hugely assisted by the rapid development and spread of smart phones as well as apps that make use of the integrated technologies contained in these devices. We can improve the quality of the data by increasing utilisation of the device in-built sensors and improving the software user-interface. Improvements to data timeliness can be made by integrating directly with national and international biodiversity repositories, such as the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). I will present two Citizen Science apps that we developed for the conservation of two of Australia’s iconic species – the koala and the echidna. First is the Koala Counter app used in the Great Koala Count 2 – a two-day Blitz-style population census. The aim was to improve both the recording of citizen science effort as well as to improve the recording of “absence” data which would improve population modelling. Our solution was to increase the transparent use of the phone sensors as well as providing an easy-to-use user interface. Second is the EchidnaCSI app – an observational tool for collecting sightings and samples of echidna. From a software developer’s perspective, I will provide details on multi-platform app development as well as collaboration and integration with the Australian national biodiversity repository – the Atlas of Living Australia. Preliminary analysis regarding data quality will be presented along with lessons learned and paths for future research. I also seek feedback and further ideas on possible enhancements or modifications that might usefully be made to improve these techniques.

Download Full-text

The data and analysis underlying NIH’s decision to cap research support lacked rigor and transparency: a commentary

10.7287/peerj.preprints.3106v1 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A Cecile JW Janssens ◽

Gary W Miller ◽

K Venkat Narayan

Keyword(s):

Scientific Output ◽

National Institutes Of Health ◽

Quality Data ◽

Rigorous Analysis ◽

Research Support ◽

High Quality Data ◽

Grant Support ◽

Threshold Data ◽

The Us

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced that they would limit the number of grants per scientist and redistribute their funds across a larger group of researchers. The policy was withdrawn a month later after criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the basis of this defunct policy was flawed and it merits further examination. The amount of grant support would have been quantified using a new metric, the Grant Support Index (GSI), and limited to a maximum of 21 points, the equivalent of three R01 grants. This threshold was decided based upon analysis of a new metric of scientific output, the annual weighted Relative Citation Ratio, which showed a pattern of diminishing returns at higher values of the GSI. In this commentary, we discuss several concerns about the validity of the two metrics and the quality of the data that the NIH had used to set the grant threshold. These concerns would have warranted a re-analysis of new data to confirm the legitimacy of the GSI threshold. Data-driven policies that affect the careers of scientists should be justified by nothing less than a rigorous analysis of high-quality data.

Download Full-text