Citizen Science

• Citizen Science is defined as "scientific work undertaken by members of the public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions"
• Public citizens' contributions come in 3 basic forms: contributive (gathering data); (2) collaborative (analyzing or interpreting data); or (3) co-created (citizen participation in all levels of a project, from the initial question to data analysis).
• Using citizen scientists as data collectors, trained scientists are able to take on ambitious projects whose data is either too prohibitively expensive to collect or not collectible at all by available research means.
• In the United States, there are currently 448 active and federally approved crowd source and citizen science projects.

Growth

• The citizen science movement has been growing as more citizens become not only comfortable with but interested in data collection, are able to use the internet to research and communicate with others, and either already possess the means of data collection (such as a camera smartphone) or can acquire them easily.
• The citizen science field has also been steadily expanding in academia and federal agencies as the numbers of participants and numbers of projects rise, as well as the creation of new data collection and analysis techniques.
• Citizen science has been an extremely useful tool for ecology and astronomy, where publicly collected images are helping expand scientific data sets, but is now gaining popularity in health and biomedical research. A wealth of citizen-produced data is available in the form of publicly reported lifestyle changes, patient histories, and DNA databases.

Benefits

• By participating in citizen science, a three-way engagement is created between the public who formulate research questions and collect data, scientists who analyze and publish it, and the community leaders and public officials who use the results to change policy.
• International organizations are making use of citizen science for large scale economic and social policy planning. In 2020 a European Commission funded research project is distributing traffic sensors to 1,500 homes across 5 countries to study traffic congestion and pollution. Pursuing this citizen science approach allows the organizers access to much more data than would have been available from a classic car counting model.
• The use of citizen science is only expected to grow (both in volume of projects and number of fields using the methodology) as artificial intelligence and deep learning methods are used to fill in data gaps, analyze available data, and create models to be used for future applications.

Limitations

• The use and growth of citizen science are limited by public interest (which projects citizens choose to participate in), unstructured data acquisition methods (data collected by the public "at will" is not subject to the same rigorous conditions as laboratory studies), and the complex data analysis that can be required for large amounts of unstructured data.
• Though many Citizen Science Associations exist on a national level there is no international or field level standards on the definition of the term "citizen science", how to qualify intellectual property of self-reported data, and validate the integrity of citizen science based research projects.

Research Strategy

Overview

• iNaturalist has created a global platform for naturalists, scientists and other members to share their observations of organisms of all types with others in order to advance the learning of the natural world. Observations include photographs, locations and dates.
• iNaturalist offers an online forum to record, organize and identify nature findings while interacting with other nature enthusiasts. Observations deemed verifiable, or Research Grade, are shared with data partners in the scientific community.
•  Data can be downloaded by anyone and has been used for hundreds of scientific publications.
•  iNaturalist stated mission is to 1) increase the public's appreciation of natural history, 2) generate high-quality data for science and 3) continually increase the "excellence" and reach of the network.
•  iNaturalist.org started as Master's final project by students at University of California Berkeley School of Information in 2008. The site expanded over the years and eventually became a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society in 2017.
• As of January 22, 2020, iNaturalist had 2.5 million users, growing from 1.4 million users a year earlier. Over that time, the number of observations per week grew from 18.7 million to 35.5 million. Research Grade observations grew from 9.9 million to 18.7 million.

Funding

• iNaturalist is owned jointly by the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society. These organizations appear to be the primary source of funding. iNaturalist's website identifies eleven other organizations as supporters and partners, several of which provide discounted or free services to iNaturalist.
• iNaturalist is supported by a multitude of volunteers that support its infrastructure, including Crowdin and Translatewiki, which translates its site and apps into multiple languages. iNaturalist has a web page dedicated to listing ways volunteers can help its efforts.
• A page on its website is dedicated to accepting one-time or recurring donations, potentially matched by one's employer.

Initiatives

•  iNaturalist notes no initiative beyond continuously improving its platforms to make it easier to collaborate and identify species. Its only stated scientific agenda is to help "map where and when species occur."
•  iNaturalist only provides a platform for the data that may drive scientific research and studies.

Research Strategy

Overview

•  Zooniverse is an organization of volunteer researchers, more than a million people worldwide who assist a team of professional researchers in web-based citizen science projects.
• There are 1,960,482 registered volunteers assisting in over 50 active online citizen science projects.
• Zooniverse is hosted by Citizen Science Alliance (CSA) on the web, a collection of scientists, software developers, and educators in association to facilitate internet-based citizen science projects.
• Zooniverse was co-founded in 2007 by Chris Lintott, a Professor of Astrophysics at University of Oxford.
• Chris Lintott is also co-founder of Galaxy Zoo, a research platform using people power to classify a million galaxies and dedicated to understanding these processes of interacting stars and galaxies.
• The success of Galaxy Zoo, what was initially to be a 2-year project, led to Zooniverse.
•  Zooniverse projects perform an array of tasks, including classifying over 1.7 million galaxies, transcribing millions of pages of text, and watching tens of thousands of videos of tiny parasites called nematodes, all of which has led to over 200 research publications.
• From 2010 to 2014, Professor Lintott was Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Computational Cosmology.

Funding

•  Funding for Zooniverse comes mainly from private foundations and government grants.
• Private individuals are encouraged to lend support by participating in one of their many projects.
•  1715 Labs is a company that was set up to benefit citizen science research, especially through the Zooniverse.
• The company's success will directly benefit Zooniverse.
• Much of the research is funded through Federal or non-profit grants as well as institutional support from Oxford, Adler, and the University of Minnesota.
• Many projects provide preexisting grants or the CSA uses grants acquired independently.
•  Volunteers are not compensated for contributions to a project.

Initiatives

•  Exoplanet Explorers are Zooniverse researchers studying planets that revolve around stars other than the Sun.
• These planets become discoverable when they pass in front of their host stars.
• Called the transit method of exoplanet detection, a dip in the brightness of the star makes them discoverable.
• In March 2019, Zooniverse volunteers had discovered 28 new exoplanet candidates, nine of which are likely rocky planets.
• The K2 mission, using citizen scientists, was initiated following the loss of the second of the four reaction wheels aboard the Kepler craft.

Research Strategy

Overview

•  eBird essentially crowdsources the act of birdwatching and compiling relevant data, such as photographs, audio recordings, location, abundance and habitat use. Individual birdwatchers around the world contribute to over 100 million bird sightings per year along with relevant data uploaded in the form of a standardized checklist.
•  To ensure data quality, eBird provides lists to birdwatchers of likely birds to be seen at a particular region and date. Abnormal results are investigated by regional experts.
• Although the total number of active members at any one time is not reported, eBird reports that over 500,000 people contributed data related to more than 737 million observations since its inception in 2012.
• Over 100,000 people downloaded raw data (for free) from eBird's website in 2019. The website had over 5.2 million visitors that year.
• While eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, it has local partners throughout the world. 

Funding

•  Prominent donors include the National Science Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation and Wolf Creek Foundation.
• eBird lists dozens of regional partners throughout the world.
•  eBird's website has a Donate button which allows the selection of one-time and monthly recurring donations.

Initiatives

•  In 2018, eBird introduced an eBird Essentials course as a free training guide to introduce participant birdwatchers to fundamentals and best practices. Over 25,000 volunteers have taken the course in 2019.
•  New birding tools were introduced in 2019 to eBird's mobile app to allow the use of more eBird tools like maps and checklists. eBird 2.0 was launched in 2019 on Android and will be launched in early 2020 for Apple. In 2019, eBird's mobile app was used to upload over 6.2 million checklists.

Research Strategy

"Citizen Scientists Discover Rare Exoplanet"

• This topic was covered by CNN and NBC News. 
• CNN reported that at the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society, citizen scientists announced the discovery of an exoplanet — known as K2-288Bb. 
• According to the report, the size of the K2-288Bb is about double the size of the Earth.
• It is "226 light-years away in the Taurus constellation."
• The exoplanet "orbits within the habitable zone of its star, meaning liquid water may exist on its surface."

"See the World and Make a Difference on a ‘Citizen Science’ Expedition"

• This topic was covered by the New York Times. 
• The article focuses on encouraging citizen science travelers that are passionate about wildlife, earth science, or the environment to participate in scientific research tour by citizen science.
• The article identified a few expedition operators that have scientific missions such as Earthwatch, Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic, and Biosphere Expeditions.
• It also listed some hotels and resorts that focus on ecotourists such as Shinta Mani Wild, Daydream Island Resort, and Refugio Amazonas.

"Exploring Antarctica as Citizen Scientist with Polar Latitudes"

• This topic was covered by Forbes. 
• In this article, Forbes dwells on Polar Latitudes — a company that offers an expedition-style cruise to Antarctica by combining luxury and adventure.
• The company has two 118 passenger ships — MS Hebridean Sky and the MS Island Sky — that sails the Southern Seas.
• The company offers travelers a chance to become citizen scientists. 

"Citizen Science Using the iNaturalist App"

• This topic was covered by the Los Angeles Times.
• LATimes published a video clip which dwells on the iNaturalist app. 
• The app is a free app for volunteers that would want to participate in citizen science. 
• Volunteers can take pictures of plants or animals and upload them on the free app for other volunteers to discuss.

"Want to Help Save Animals Threatened by Extinction? Become a Citizen Scientist."

• This topic was covered by The Washington Post.
• It dwells on the role of kids in observing and preserving animals that are threatened by extinction.
• Such a role includes keeping kids away from "protected beach areas that are reserved for shorebirds."
• Kids can become citizen scientists by observing wildlife and nature, documenting what they see, and by sharing what they know.
• Furthermore, the article identified programs that are designed to enable kids to contribute to the preservation of these animals such as eBird and eMammal.

Technology Used to Engage People Into Citizen Science

• Technology currently allows common people to more easily access science projects. Three tech tools are crucial to attract people into citizen science projects: Project websites, project catalogues and social media websites /apps.
• The way how people can collect data becomes an incentive for citizens to participate in a science project. Our current technology aids this experience: smartwatches, mobile phones, IoT, drones, mapping technologies as well as virtual and augmented reality.

San Francisco Bay Observatory

• The photo station is a program used by several research organizations to encourage citizens to participate in science project research. San Francisco Bay Observatory created a photo station on Bair Island California and invited citizens to photograph the ecosystem. By doing this, citizens help track the plants' growth.
• To engage and attract citizens into the project, a sign in the photo station states: "More than 30 species of plants have been planted there to encourage native plant communities. The photos will help researchers track the plants’ growth if posted on Twitter with the hashtag #RestoreBair2".
• The citizen engagement achieved by this kind of project has other positive results: The participants in citizen science generate an environmental awareness that is shared with their friends and families. This factor could help increase environmental conservation.

Project Website Zooniverse

•  Zooniverse began 10 years ago and it is a multicultural project. The team from North America (California and Minnesota) added a great deal to the project. Its purpose is to converge common people's science efforts with professional researchers' projects.
• Zooniverse project engages people into citizen science using digital technology such as the internet. It invites people in with the next legend: "Zooniverse enables everyone to take part in real, cutting edge research in many fields across the sciences, humanities and more."
• Zooniverse has a huge and active digital community. The website has 1,960,465 registered users, 29,907 followers on Facebook and 20,800 followers on Twitter. This is translated into thousands of citizens ready to participate in a citizen science project.

Questa Game App

•  The game App proposal is a very attractive strategy for citizens all around the globe, including North America. The app is downloadable from digital stores in any mobile phone. The premise is simple; upload photos of wildlife, acquire points for it and be globally ranked.
• The game consists on obtaining the most "points or gold". In the official website anyone can see the best-ranked players of the App. This game idea increases the interest of common people of delving into science.

Catalog Citizen Science US Government

• The official US General Services Administration website: "citizen science" currently offers 448 projects in the United States and in other countries. In these projects people can participate by contacting the leader of each science project to join.
• The official government initiative is to promote citizen participation in science projects by making things more accessible. In the website, tools like "Community or Toolkit" can be found. These tools allow interested people to see citizen science as something accessible.

Earthwatch: International Environmental Charity

• The Earthwatch mission statement is the following: "To engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education. To promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment".
• The organization selects innovative scientific research projects to solve critical environmental problems. They also promote fresh and attractive ways to participate in each project. They do this in order to engage the general public as well as academic people. An example of it is the project: Sierra to Sea.

Research Strategy