Do biodiversity monitoring citizen science surveys meet the core principles of open science practices?

Abstract

Citizen science (CS), as an enabler of open science (OS) practices, is a low-cost and accessible method for data collection in biodiversity monitoring, which can empower and educate the public both on scientific research priorities and on environmental change. Where OS increases research transparency and scientific democratisation; if properly implemented, CS should do the same. Here, we present the findings of a systematic review exploring “openness” of CS in biodiversity monitoring. CS projects were scored between − 1 (closed) and 1 (open) on their adherence to defined OS principles: accessible data, code, software, publication, data management plans, and preregistrations. Openness scores per principle were compared to see where OS is more frequently utilised across the research process. The relationship between interest in CS and openness within the practice was also tested. Overall, CS projects had an average open score of 0.14. There was a significant difference in open scores between OS principles (p = < 0.0001), where “open data” was the most adhered to practice compared to the lowest scores found in relation to preregistrations. The apparent level of interest in CS was not shown to correspond to a significant increase in openness within CS (p = 0.8464). These results reveal CS is not generally “open” despite being an OS approach, with implications for how the public can interact with the research that they play an active role in contributing to. The development of systematic recommendations on where and how OS can be implemented across the research process in citizen science projects is encouraged.

Identifying priority sites for the on-farm conservation of landraces and systematic diversity monitoring through an integrated multi-level hotspot analysis: the case of potatoes in Peru

“…While these inventories with detailed morphological, genetic and ethnobotanical details offer a solid register, they often lack temporal occurrence data per landrace. To increase the number of observations in space and time, citizen science and crowdsourcing approaches hold great promise to underpin long-term diversity monitoring (Johnston et al, 2022;Suter et al, 2023). An example of such a pilot-level effort is the WikiPapa Platform (www.wikipapa.org).…”

The potential of citizen science to transform science: Lessons for a sustainable future

“…In 2016, a set of guiding principles were instantiated with the aim to establish a standard for scientific data, ensuring that it is FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (Wilkinson et al., 2016). Nevertheless, it has been shown that despite the development of tools to facilitate open science, abounding toolkits and data and code repositories, the potential of citizen science to be practiced as open science is not always realised by those responsible for the projects, with missing information in published outcomes having a significant impact on the openness of the research projects that were analysed (Suter et al., 2023) and low uptake of complex data management plan tools (Roman et al., 2021). However, CS projects such as StreetSpectra provide an exemplary testbed for the usability of open science infrastructure and for testing how FAIR research is.…”

Citizen Science: Pathways to Impact and why Participant Diversity Matters

“…Not all CS datasets are open, and in some cases this would be undesirable because of safety or privacy concerns, but when they are open, they can be used by other researchers or decision-makers, on their own or in combination with other datasets, to contribute to the medium-and long-term outcomes described under pathways 1 and 2. Open datasets (and publications) can also, in the long term, democratise science as they can be viewed by and interrogated by anyone, potentially increasing accountability, transparency, and trust, as well as widening involvement in the scientific and knowledge-creation processes (Suter, Barrett, and Welden 2023).…”