Leveraging the power of place in citizen science for effective conservation decision making

Newman, Greg; Chandler, Mark; Clyde, Malin; McGreavy, Bridie; Haklay, Muki; Ballard, Heidi L.; Gray, Steven; Scarpino, Russell; Hauptfeld, Rina S.; Mellor, David Thomas; Gallo, John

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.07.019

Cited by 139 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Younger people and men might be initially more inclined to volunteer as citizen scientists based on their higher levels of confidence; however, many other factors, including sense of place, environmental commitment, and altruism can influence recruitment of volunteers (Dickinson et al 2012;Newman et al 2017) and influence the decision to volunteer, and women were significantly more likely than men to state that they would enjoy several data collection tasks. In the United States, women are more likely than men to volunteer, and 35-44 year olds are the most likely to volunteer (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Perceptions of Citizen Science

Lewandowski

Caldwell

Elmquist

et al. 2017

CSTP

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Members of the public are the foundation and the backbone of citizen science, but much remains unknown about how the public views citizen science. We conducted a survey of public familiarity with, and perceptions of, citizen science. We found that less than half of respondents were familiar with the term "citizen science," but over 70% were familiar with the concept by another name. Most respondents were more confident in hypothetical citizen science findings when professional scientists were involved to some degree, compared to situations in which only citizen scientists were involved. Confidence in citizen science findings tended to increase with age, despite the fact that self-confidence in respondents' own abilities to perform citizen science tasks decreased with age. Fewer than half of respondents (31-47%), and more men than women, were confident in their own ability to perform science process tasks, with the exception of collecting data (53% confident), and only slightly more predicted they would enjoy such activities. Based on our findings, we suggest ways in which leaders of citizen science projects can better promote recruitment, retention, and engagement on the part of volunteers and the public as a whole.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Perceptions of Citizen Science

Lewandowski

Caldwell

Elmquist

et al. 2017

CSTP

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“…Based on these findings, we restructured our project to minimize these potential barriers to participation and to increase the relevance of the project to participants (see Gray et al 2017;Newman et al 2017). It is important for project managers to consider how a project impacts the participants themselves and to make adjustments to its procedural and communication approaches to sustain participation and increase satisfaction West and Pateman 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this setting, a community of practice refers to the social interactions that take place during the process of developing and executing a co-created citizen science project that moves people from novice at the start to more knowledgeable and skillful over time. Communities of practice may emerge in both fieldbased and online settings, and developing a sense of community between scientists and participants in online environments may be particularly important (Bell et al 2008;Clary and Snyder 1999;Ryan et al 2001;Newman et al 2017;Mankowski et al 2011). Participating in such a community may lead to shifts in participant identities that become more aligned with the project (Lave and Wenger 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Benefits of Online and Community Supported Citizen Science: A Case Study on Motivation and Retention with Conservation-Oriented Volunteers

Frensley

Crall

Stern

et al. 2017

CSTP

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This study explores the motivations and barriers for participation and persistence in an innovative citizen science pilot project with Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers. The project combines self-guided online training, in-person meetings, and collaboration through social networking and "mental modeling" to support on-the-ground development and execution of citizen science projects developed by participants. Results suggest that the two strongest motivators for volunteers to participate in the project were an interest in the environment and an interest in protecting a local natural resource. Our findings indicate that volunteers with more prior experience participating in citizen science projects and those with higher gross incomes were more likely to persist in the project. Our data also suggest that decisions to persist or drop out of the project were influenced by volunteers' time commitment, their ability to use the online tools, the perceived relevance of the resources, and the saliency of the project. Projects that arose from pre-existing environmental issues seemed to be more salient and may have enhanced volunteer persistence. We discuss the influence of our findings and the implications for the development of future citizen science projects.

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“…Meanwhile, since much citizen science addresses local concerns, the potential for place-based citizen science to affect local decisionmaking is only beginning to emerge (Newman et al, 2017). In the last five years, the RAND Corporation has begun collaborating on community citizen science projects with groups in Louisiana and New York.…”

Section: A Promising Future For Community Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%