Deconstructing citizen science: a framework on communication and interaction using the concept of roles

Hecker, Susanne; Taddicken, Monika

doi:10.22323/2.21010207

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…Finally, another success factor is enabling long‐term communication and commitment with citizens. From recruiting participants, to keeping them engaged and motivated, effective communication between scientists and project participants is essential for any citizen science project (Hecker & Taddicken, 2022; Vattakaven et al, 2022; Veeckman et al, 2019). Rüfenacht et al (2021), however, described communication as one of the main challenges for citizen science projects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research

Mason,

Gascuel‐Odoux,

Aldrian

et al. 2024

European J Soil Science

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Soils are key components of our ecosystems and provide 95%–99% of our food. This importance is reflected by an increase in participatory citizen science projects on soils. Citizen science is a participatory research method that actively involves and engages the public in scientific enquiry to generate new knowledge or understanding. Here, we review past and current citizen science projects on agricultural soils across Europe. We conducted a web‐based survey and described 24 reviewed European citizen science projects in the light of the 10 principles of citizen science and identified success factors for citizen science. Over 66% of the projects generated soil biodiversity data; 54% and 42% of the projects generated data on vegetation cover and soil organic carbon, respectively. Our findings show that soil citizen science projects aligned with the 10 principles of citizen science offer an unexploited resource for European soil health research. We conclude that promoting co‐creation, fostering knowledge‐sharing networks and enabling long‐term communication and commitment with citizens are success factors for further development of citizen science on soils.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research

Mason,

Gascuel‐Odoux,

Aldrian

et al. 2024

European J Soil Science

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“…The acknowledgment of the transformative process affecting many aspects of the relationship between ecology and society (Haberl et al, 2006;Groffman et al, 2010;EEA, 2021a;EEA, 2021b) highlights the potential role that CS may play in these efforts. CS, indeed, may become an opportunity for scientists, as well as citizens, to rethink the way they conceive, share and formulate questions on scientific issues, renegotiating their role, rights and responsibilities (Allen and Giampietro, 2006;Enquist et al, 2017;Wittmayer et al, 2019;L'Astorina et al, 2021;Hecker and Taddicken, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various authors have offered different epistemological views of volunteer involvement in CS. The two main directions (Hecker and Taddicken, 2022) still refer to seminal works proposed in the nineties by Irwin (1995) and Bonney (1996). Irwin (1995) proposed the term CS as a support to democratization of expertise, emphasizing the collaborative aspects of citizens and often including people with local and lay or indigenous knowledge who work with scientists to co-create knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ attitudes about citizen science at Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites

L'Astorina

Davis

Pugnetti

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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A profound transformation, in recent decades, is promoting shifts in the ways ecological science is produced and shared; as such, ecologists are increasingly encouraged to engage in dialogues with multiple stakeholders and in transdisciplinary research. Among the different forms of public engagement, citizen science (CS) has significant potential to support science-society interactions with mutual benefits. While many studies have focused on the experience and motivations of CS volunteers, scarce literature investigating the perspectives of researchers is available. The main purpose of this paper is to better understand scientists’ attitudes about CS in the context of its potential to support outcomes that extent beyond more traditional ones focused on promoting science knowledge and interest. We surveyed the scientific community belonging to the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network because ILTER is of interest to multiple stakeholders and occurs over long time scales. Via an online questionnaire, we asked ILTER scientists about their willingness to participate in different types of public engagement, their reasons for participating in CS, the associated barriers, and any impacts of these efforts on them. Our findings show that many ILTER scientists are open to participating in CS for a wide range of reasons; the dominant ones involve deeper public engagement and collaboration. The barriers of greatest concern of these respondents were the lack of institutional support to start and run a CS project and the difficulty of establishing long-term stable relationships with the public. They reported impacts of CS activities on how they pursue their work and acknowledged the benefit of opportunities to learn from the public. The emerging picture from this research is of a community willing and actively involved in many CS projects for both traditional reasons, such as data gathering and public education, and expanded reasons that activate a real two-way cooperation with the public. In the ILTER community, CS may thus become an opportunity to promote and develop partnerships with citizens, helping to advance the science-society interface and to rediscover and enhance the human and social dimension of the scientific work.

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“…While several typologies of CS projects have been suggested to map project diversity in terms of scientific, social, and other goals as well as the contribution and participation of volunteers [e.g. Bonney, Ballard et al, 2009;Hecker & Taddicken, 2022;Shirk et al, 2012;Haklay, 2013;Strasser et al, 2019], we draw heavily on the three main types of projects described by Bonney et al [2016]:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science

Collins¹,

Sullivan²,

Bray³

2022

JCOM

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It is often assumed that citizen science is inherently participatory in nature. However, citizen science projects exist along a continuum from data contribution to full co-creation. We invited 19 biologists to explore their conceptions of citizen science. Almost all participants defined citizen science as involving non-scientists in data collection. This definition acted as a barrier for scientists who did not see how citizen science could suit their research objectives. While interviewees perceived many societal and experiential benefits of contributory citizen science, deliberate design is needed to realise the full potential of citizen science for public engagement.

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Deconstructing citizen science: a framework on communication and interaction using the concept of roles

Cited by 11 publications

References 36 publications

Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research

Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research

Scientists’ attitudes about citizen science at Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites

Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science

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