Lessons from lady beetles: accuracy of monitoring data from US and UK citizen‐science programs

Abstract

Citizen scientists have the potential to play a crucial role in the study of rapidly changing lady beetle (Coccinellidae) populations. We used data derived from three coccinellid‐focused citizen‐science programs to examine the costs and benefits of data collection from direct citizen‐science (data used without verification) and verified citizen‐science (observations verified by trained experts) programs. Data collated through direct citizen science overestimated species richness and diversity values in comparison to verified data, thereby influencing interpretation. The use of citizen scientists to collect data also influenced research costs; our analysis shows that verified citizen science was more cost effective than traditional science (in terms of data gathered per dollar). The ability to collect a greater number of samples through direct citizen science may compensate for reduced accuracy, depending on the type of data collected and the type(s) and extent of errors committed by volunteers.

A Method for Citizen Scientists to Catalogue Worldwide Chlorociboria spp. Distribution

“…A final factor that aided in the accurate identification was likely the focus on a single, distinct genus, allowing the participants to focus their attention. Surveys asking for a wider number of specimens to be located risk over or underestimation [4,58,59].…”

“…Relying on citizen scientists to expand and contribute to field data on different research topics, such as ornithology [1], mycology [3], and entomology [4], is increasingly common. Initiatives such as eBird, developed by Cornell University, has shown the feasibility, accuracy, and reliability of data generated by citizen scientists [4,5].…”

Entomological citizen science in Canada

“…Finally, the success of a citizen science project must be measured, at least in part, in terms of the quality of the data obtained (Dickinson et al 2010;Kremen et al 2011;Gardiner et al 2012) the extent to which professional researchers accept this data (Ottinger 2010), and the quality of the database cyber-architecture itself (Newman et al 2011). Study design is important to working ecologists, but most citizen science projects are opportunistic in nature, such that there really is no study design other than the monitoring a specific aspect of nature.…”

Swedish LifeWatch ─ a biodiversity infrastructure integrating and reusing data from citizen science, monitoring and research

“…The validator can also hide low-quality observations for others to see and download. This type of citizen science data, verified by experts or community peers through human computation processes, has been shown to be a cost-effective way to provide accurate estimates of species richness and diversity values (Gardiner et al, 2012).…”