The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

Pocock, Michael J.O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4375-0445; Tweddle, John C.; Savage, Joanna; Robinson, Lucy D.; Roy, Helen E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6050-679X. 2017 The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science. PLoS ONE, 12 (4), e0172579. 17, pp. 10.1371/journal.pone.0172579

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172579

Abstract/Summary

Citizen science—the involvement of volunteers in data collection, analysis and interpretation—simultaneously supports research and public engagement with science, and its profile is rapidly rising. Citizen science represents a diverse range of approaches, but until now this diversity has not been quantitatively explored. We conducted a systematic internet search and discovered 509 environmental and ecological citizen science projects. We scored each project for 32 attributes based on publicly obtainable information and used multiple factor analysis to summarise this variation to assess citizen science approaches. We found that projects varied according to their methodological approach from ‘mass participation’ (e.g. easy participation by anyone anywhere) to ‘systematic monitoring’ (e.g. trained volunteers repeatedly sampling at specific locations). They also varied in complexity from approaches that are ‘simple’ to those that are ‘elaborate’ (e.g. provide lots of support to gather rich, detailed datasets). There was a separate cluster of entirely computer-based projects but, in general, we found that the range of citizen science projects in ecology and the environment showed continuous variation and cannot be neatly categorised into distinct types of activity. While the diversity of projects begun in each time period (pre 1990, 1990–99, 2000–09 and 2010–13) has not increased, we found that projects tended to have become increasingly different from each other as time progressed (possibly due to changing opportunities, including technological innovation). Most projects were still active so consequently we found that the overall diversity of active projects (available for participation) increased as time progressed. Overall, understanding the landscape of citizen science in ecology and the environment (and its change over time) is valuable because it informs the comparative evaluation of the ‘success’ of different citizen science approaches. Comparative evaluation provides an evidence-base to inform the future development of citizen science activities.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1371/journal.pone.0172579
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Pywell
ISSN:	1932-6203
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Data and Information
Date made live:	29 Sep 2017 09:49 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517957

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1371/journal.pone.0172579

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Pywell

ISSN:

1932-6203

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment
Data and Information