Contours of citizen science: a vignette study

Abstract

Citizen science has expanded rapidly over the past decades. Yet, defining citizen science and its boundaries remained a challenge, and this is reflected in the literature - for example in the proliferation of typologies and definitions. There is a need for identifying areas of agreement and disagreement within the citizen science practitioners community on what should be considered as citizen science activity. This paper describes the development and results of a survey that examined this issue, through the use of vignettes - short case descriptions that describe an activity, while asking the respondents to rate the activity on a scale from ‘not citizen science’ (0%) to ‘citizen science’ (100%). The survey included 50 vignettes, of which 5 were developed as clear cases of not-citizen science activities, 5 as widely accepted citizen science activities, and the others addressing 10 factors and 61 sub-factors that can lead to controversy about an activity. The survey has attracted 333 respondents, who provided over 5,100 ratings. The analysis demonstrates the plurality of understanding of what citizen science is and calls for an open understanding of what activities are included in the field.

The characteristics of citizen science in a fishbowl

“…For example, aspects of commercialisation, sharing of personal biological data or degrees of engagement and awareness fuelled the workshop debates. These were also themes of controversy in the vignette survey responses [5].…”

“…The vignettes were presented in a survey in December 2019, asking respondents to rate them on a scale from 'not citizen science' (0%) to 'citizen science' (100%) and to provide explanations for their assessment. Over 330 people responded to the survey, with more than 5,000 ratings and around 50,000 words of textual comments [5]. While this allowed quantitative analysis and qualitative comparative analysis of individual rationales for the ratings, the survey did not allow for discursive questioning and conversation to better understand the reasoning behind the individual assessments and the formation of these opinions.…”

Digital Citizen Science for Responding to COVID-19 Crisis: Experiences from Iran

“…Citizen science projects can be classified in many ways considering their various characteristics. For example, they can be categorized into two major classes based on their main outcomes: a scientific/research outcome or a science-informed management/policy/response outcome [46,47]. Citizen science projects can also be categorized based on their leadership approach.…”

A peer production model for citizen science: comparative analysis of three online platforms

“…Citizen science projects can vary in many dimensions, and an understanding how the term "citizen science" itself is currently used and understood is an ongoing topic of discussion and research (Haklay et al, 2020). An overview and comparison of typologies centered on aspects of "public participation" can be found in a work by Schrögel and Kolleck (2018).…”