Overcoming the challenges of public data archiving for citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes

Pearce-Higgins, James W.; Baillie, Stephen R.; Boughey, Katherine; Bourn, Nigel A.D.; Foppen, Ruud P.B.; Gillings, Simon; Gregory, Richard D.; Hunt, Tom; Jiguet, Frederic; Lehikoinen, Aleksi; Musgrove, Andy J.; Robinson, Rob A.; Roy, David B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5147-0331; Siriwardena, Gavin M.; Walker, Kevin J.; Wilson, Jeremy D.. 2018 Overcoming the challenges of public data archiving for citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55 (6). 2544-2551. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13180

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Abstract/Summary

1. Public data archiving (PDA) is widely advocated as a means of achieving open data standards, leading to improved data preservation, increased scientific reproducibility, and transparency, as well as additional data use. 2. Public data archiving was primarily conceived to archive data from short‐term, single‐purpose scientific studies. It is now more widely applied, including to large‐scale citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes which combine the efforts of volunteers with professional scientists. 3. This may affect the financial security of such schemes by reducing income from data and analytical services. Communication between scheme organizers and researchers may be disrupted, reducing scientific quality and impeding scheme development. It may also have an impact on the participation of some volunteers. 4. Synthesis and applications. In response to the challenges of public data archiving for citizen science biodiversity recording and monitoring schemes, the archive function of scheme organizations should be better recognized by those promoting open data principles. Increased financial support from the public sector or from commercial or academic data users may offset financial risk. Those in favour of public data archiving should do more to facilitate communication between nonscheme users and the originating schemes, while a more flexible approach to data archiving may be required to address potential impacts on volunteer participation.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13180
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	0021-8901
Additional Keywords:	biological recording, citizen science, data archiving, monitoring scheme, open data, quality assurance, volunteer
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Data and Information
Date made live:	22 Jun 2018 14:37 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520360

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