Recent posts on STS-l about citizen science projects reminded me of the citizen science site, Zooniverse. Zooniverse is a directory of citizen science projects, organized by broad subject areas such as Arts, Climate, History, and Physics. Obviously not all of the projects included in Zooniverse are being conducted in the sciences, so the meaning of citizen science perhaps needs a little clarification. Citizen science is loosely defined as organized research that includes the participation of laypeople (Heigl and Dorler, 2017). Projects ask people to collect, review or manipulate data, and some just want a donation of your personal computer’s unused processing power. Other newer projects in Europe have undertaken to create new citizen-driven collaborations between scientists, amateurs, and government policymakers.

Like many things involving citizens and science lately, there are some critics of the concept who feel the collected data may be inaccurate or subject to participants’ biases. For the most part, though, science educators have embraced it as a way to engage students and the public in science, and an article in Issues in Science and Technology Libraries shows that academic science librarians are also involved in citizen science projects. What do you think about citizen science?

Additional reading:

Brown, A., Franken, P., Bonner, S., Dolezal, N., & Moross, J. (2016). Safecast: successful citizen-science for radiation measurement and communication after Fukushima. Journal of Radiological Protection, 36(2), S82. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0952-4746/36/2/S82/pdf

Cohen, C., Cheney, L., Duong, K., Lea, B., & Pettway Unno, Z. (2015). Identifying opportunities in citizen science for academic libraries. Issues in Science and Technology Libraries, 79(Winter 2015). http://www.istl.org/15-winter/article1.html

Gray, S. A., Nicosia, K., & Jordan, R. C. (2012). Lessons learned from citizen science in the classroom. a response to” the future of citizen science.”. Democracy and Education, 20(2), 14. https://democracyeducationjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=home

Heigl, F. & Dorler, D. (2017, November 8). Public participation: Time for a definition of citizen science [Correspondence]. Nature, 551, 168. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-05745-8

Irwin, A. (2018, October 23). No PhDs needed: how citizen science is transforming research [News feature]. Nature, 562, 480-482. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07106-5

Ottinger, G. (2010). Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(2), 244–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243909337121

Laura Palumbo, Chemistry & Physics Librarian and Science Data Specialist, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, NJ

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