Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
Volunteers contribute species observations to iNaturalist, feeding biodiversity research.
- Is an instance
A community group co-designs an air-quality monitoring study with university researchers.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
An app that crowdsources data with no feedback to contributors and no role in publication.
- Not an instance
Calling a public lecture 'citizen science' with no public contribution to research.
Editorial commentary
Citizen science is distinct from outreach: citizens act as researchers, contributing meaningfully to scientific knowledge. Modes range from 'contributory' (publics collect data) to 'collaborative' (publics design protocols) to 'co-created' (publics lead). Established platforms include Zooniverse, iNaturalist, eBird and the Great Backyard Bird Count. ECSA (European Citizen Science Association) maintains the 'Ten Principles of Citizen Science' addressing quality, ethics, and recognition. UNESCO's Open Science Recommendation explicitly identifies citizen science as a pillar of open science.
References
- ECSA Ten Principles of Citizen Science, 2015. Bonney R et al. 'Citizen Science: a developing tool for expanding science knowledge' BioScience 2009.
Also known as
Citizen science research · Community science
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Citizen science"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/citizen-science" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"name": "Citizen science",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/citizen-science",
"description": "Research in which members of the general public actively participate in the scientific process, including problem framing, data collection, analysis or dissemination, often at large scale and with substantive contribution.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/engagement-impact-and-sdg-alignment/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/citizen-science",
"sameAs": [
"Citizen science research",
"Community science"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
