Review of six Japanese online citizen science projects with main indicators to encourage citizen motivation

Abstract

Universities and research institutions have recently been preparing for open science. Open science includes various concepts such as open data and open access. Scientific activities participated in with citizens who are not specialists in the field are traditionally called citizen science. The recent developments of web-based information and communication technology (ICT) have further changed the methods and styles of citizen science. This new generation of web-based citizen science is referred to as "crowd science" in this study. Crowd science projects have gradually been launched in Japan as web-based data-collection and data-processing projects. However, what factors mainly contribute to the improvement of these Japanese projects are yet to be reviewed. In this article, six Japanese crowd science projects are reviewed and classified on the basis of levels of online citizen participation. It is suggested that super-volunteers, who are enthusiastic members of the project, should become key players for the growth of the project. Furthermore, it is revealed that online discussion forums have played a major role in enhancing participants' communication. These forums result in fruitful discussions and achievements of the project. Knowledge of these key components is beneficial not only for future project organizers but also for universities and research institutions.

The state of online citizen science in Mongolia and its potential for environmental challenges

“…With regard to the use of web technologies, online platforms (websites, web apps, and mobile apps), and social media are already well established in Germany and Japan, but there is still room for improvement in the further development of educational tools and the exchange of data between projects [ 20 , 62 ].…”

“…While there was a strong thematic focus on plants in Mongolia, there was a more balanced proportion of animal observations in Germany and Japan. Regarding the use of web technologies, projects in Mongolia follow general trends from other countries, such as Germany and Japan, which also apply to social media [ 20 , 62 ]. Compared to Germany, projects in Mongolia address fewer UN SDGs; however, there are significantly fewer citizen science projects in Mongolia.…”

“…A literature review was conducted to provide a brief overview of citizen science in Germany and Japan. The literature review concentrated on the aspects that were analyzed for Mongolia: the use of web technologies [ 20 , 62 ], link to UN SDGs [ 63 ], and Haklay’s classification [ 20 , 63 ].…”

“…At the country level, web-information based studies on citizen science projects, for example for Brazil [18], Germany [19], Japan [20], and South Africa [21] examined starting year, target age group, research field, main activities, the level of citizen's participation (Haklay's classification), web technologies, the linkage to UN SDGs, number of participants, number of observations, the type of the involved institutions, among others. Survey based studies, for example for Ireland [22] and Spain [23] examined awareness of citizen science in the educational institutions, the citizen science project's outputs, the level of citizen's participation (Haklay's classification), training of participants, among others.…”

The Influence of Citizens’ Online Participation on Policy Formulation Based on the Structural Equation Model

“…People have more opportunities to express themselves in public policymaking and can also amplify their voices online and form a common force to realize their interests [5]. However, it should be clear that the impacts of online political participation in developing countries seem to be more obvious than those in developed countries [7]. In those developed centuries, there is a wide range of ways for citizens to participate in politics, and thus, the thrill of Internet users' indulgence on the Internet is not very strong, and accordingly, the impact is not quite obvious [15].…”