ECSA, the ECSA principles, and the ECSA Characteristics of Citizen Science
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The European Citizen Science Association aims to connect citizens and science through fostering active participation. Its mission is to encourage the growth of citizen science in Europe by mobilizing citizens to contribute to evidence-based sustainable development through citizen science projects. The association supports citizen science projects, interactions between groups and disciplines, and the participation of the general public. It also performs research on citizen science and shares best practices. Some focus areas of the association include projects, data, tools and technology; policy, strategy, governance and partnerships; learning and education; air quality; open science; bio blitzes; and global mosquito alert.
ECSA, the ECSA principles, and the ECSA Characteristics of Citizen Science
- 1. The European Citizen Science Association Characteristics of Citizen Science Margaret Gold (WeObserve, LandSense, EU-Citizen.Science)
- 2. To connect citizens and science through fostering active participation. mission
- 3. To encourage the growth of the Citizen Science movement in Europe To mobilize Citizen Science as a means for evidence-based sustainable development Initiate and support citizen science projects Support interactions between groups and disciplines Enhance the participation of the general public Perform research on citizen science aims
- 5. Sharing Best Practice and Building Capacity! Projects, Data, Tools, and Technology! Policy, Strategy, Governance and Partnerships! Learning and Education in Citizen Science! ! Air Quality! ! CS and Open Science! ! BioBlitzes! ! Global Mosquito Alert! Empowerment, Inclusiveness, Equity!
- 8. CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS ACTIVELY INVOLVE CITIZENS IN SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOUR THAT GENERATES NEW KNOWLEDGE OR UNDERSTANDING! 1! Citizens may act as contributors, collaborators, or as project leader and have a meaningful role in the project.!
- 9. CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS HAVE A GENUINE SCIENCE OUTCOME 2! For example, answering a research question or informing conservation action, management decisions or environmental policy.
- 10. Benefits may include the publication of research outputs, learning opportunities, personal enjoyment, social benefits, satisfaction through contributing to scientific evidence e.g. to address local, national and international issues, and through that, the potential to influence policy BOTH THE PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS AND THE CITIZEN SCIENTISTS BENEFIT FROM TAKING PART 3!
- 11. This may include developing the research question, designing the method, gathering and analysing data, and communicating the results CITIZEN SCIENTISTS MAY, IF THEY WISH, PARTICIPATE IN MULTIPLE STAGES OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS 4!
- 13. For example, how their data are being used and what the research, policy or societal outcomes are CITIZEN SCIENTISTS RECEIVE FEEDBACK FROM THE PROJECT 5!
- 14. However unlike traditional research approaches, citizen science provides opportunity for greater public engagement and democratisation of science CITIZEN SCIENCE IS CONSIDERED A RESEARCH APPROACH LIKE ANY OTHER, WITH LIMITATIONS AND BIASES THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AND CONTROLLED FOR 6!
- 15. Data sharing may occur during or after the project, unless there are security or privacy concerns that prevent thi CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT DATA AND META- DATA ARE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AND WHERE POSSIBLE, RESULTS ARE PUBLISHED IN AN OPEN ACCESS FORMAT 7!
- 16. CITIZEN SCIENTISTS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED IN PROJECT RESULTS AND PUBLICATIONS 8!
- 17. CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAMMES ARE EVALUATED FOR THEIR SCIENTIFIC OUTPUT, DATA QUALITY, PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE AND WIDER SOCIETAL OR POLICY IMPACT 9!
- 18. THE LEADERS OF CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES SURROUNDING COPYRIGHT, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, DATA SHARING AGREEMENTS, CONFIDENTIALITY, ATTRIBUTION, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF ANY ACTIVITIES 10!
- 23. Börner K, Klavans R, Patek M, Zoss AM, Biberstine JR, et al. (2012) Design and Update of a Classification System: The UCSD Map of Science. PLOS ONE 7(7): e39464. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039464 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0039464
- 24. The Characteristics There is need for common ground There should be a pluralistic understanding It‘s challenging to have one common definition https://zenodo.org/communities/citscicharacteristics
- 25. Methodology Factors! Identified 9 factors that influence people’s view about an activity being CS Vignettes! Developed 50 vignettes to provide these factors with more context! Diversity! Reached out to people in research, science communication, policy, and public Grading! Asked people to grade from 0% (not CS) to 100% (is CS)
- 26. Factors 6. Training 7. Data sharing 8. Leadership 9. Scientific field 10. Involvement 1. Activeness 2. Compensation 3. Purpose 4. Purpose of Knowledge production 5. Professionalism
- 28. 0% 100% # 3 Subscription Fee Sub- Factors Inspired by Jane is a long-time supporter of the charity British Trust of Ornithology (BTO) work, as she cares about birds. She is an active supporter of the Garden Birdwatch programme (GBW), and happy to give it £17 a year. However, she doesn’t have time to carry out the bird watching survey. She is reading with interest the reports from the BTO GBW and finds the information motivating to continue her support of the project. 1.1, 2.6, 3.1, 4.2, 5.1, 6.2, 7.2, 8.6, 9.1, 10.7 DITOS – Doing it Together Science, Deliverable: Innovation Management Plan
- 29. 50
- 32. Wide range of Respondents
- 35. Amateur naturalist1! Sharman is a science writer and teacher of English literature. In her free time, she decided to study the tiger beetle at the Gila River, close to her home in Arizona, USA. This is a personal project. She is growing larvae in a terrarium at home to learn about their physiology. On specific questions, she is supported by a retired professor of entomology. Eventually, she writes an academic paper that describes her findings, that is published in the journal of the entomological society and receives feedback from entomologists. She does not share her primary data with anyone except the entomologist.
- 37. Game12! Jacques has joined a massive multiplayer game for which he pays a subscription fee. In the game, he is travelling through galaxies trading, mining resources, and competing with other players. He enters an area, where he classifies human proteins, for which he gets credits that can be traded throughout the game. The project was initiated by scientists and a gaming company. The classifications will eventually get published in the human protein atlas.
- 38. Game12!
- 39. Crowdsourcing15! Erik is a teacher in Uppsala, Sweden. For the past 15 years, he is running a weather station that is part of the Weather Underground’s Personal Weather Station Network with over 250,00 participants who share their observation data, just like Erik. In return for the data sharing, the company is providing tech support, data management services and customised, free-of-charge access to forecasts. The company uses the data to produce a global weather forecast as a commercial service.
- 40. Crowdsourcing15!
- 41. Collecting Data / Not Shared22! Jacob is an avid wild mushroom (fungi) collector in Ghent, Belgium. For the past twenty years, he travelled the forests and meadows of East Flanders in weekends and holidays from his work as a priest, recording the locations, dates, and occurrence of many species. This information is initially kept on files in his computer, and together with other fungi enthusiasts, he is planning to produce the atlas of fungi in East Flanders sometime soon. Until they publish the atlas, he does not want to share the information.
- 42. Collecting Data / Not Shared22!
- 43. Mapping37! Simone is an artist that has been developing special self- tracking hardware and software that she uses to run public workshops. In the workshops that are hosted by arts organisations, people can walk the area and annotate their feelings and emotions using this hard- and software. When they come back a collective map is made of all the collected local knowledge. These maps have been used in local decision-making processes by politicians and NGOs. The data from the work and designed maps are publically shared and have been internationally exhibited. (CN) (Reviewed: DD).
- 44. Mapping37!
- 45. Survey46! Margarita is working as a research assistant in an agricultural research centre in Spain. She has received a request to fill in a questionnaire about her experience as a resident of the area where she lives. She filled it in after work, and sent it back to the transport researchers who are working with her municipality to improve the operational capacity of public transport. Once completed, the researchers will analyse the results and share the report with the authorities, with a summary shared publicly. (MH) (Reviewed: BK)
- 46. Survey46!
- 47. The Characteristics Areas 1. Core Concepts 2. Disciplinary Aspects 3. Leadership and Participation 4. Financial Aspects 5. Data & Knowledge
- 48. Core Concepts Here, we look at the conceptual issues that might help to decide the degree of citizen science of a given project. This can be especially challenging in areas that were Identified as ambiguous, such as the difference between a clinical study of digital health tools and participatory sensing activities of the exact same tools. • Science & Research • What counts as research • Intention and framing • Hypothesis-driven, monitoring, inductive, exploratory, and database creation • Roles and responsibilities • Subject or participant • Ethics
- 49. Disciplinary Aspects Our study of views demonstrated that some areas of research are especially prone to ambiguity, or two specific issues that relate to practices within the sub-disciplines in these areas. We therefore explain what the specific issues are for each area. • Disciplinary views – scientific and technological, arts and humanities, social sciences • Medical sciences and human health
- 50. Leadership & Participation Here we focus on who is the ‘project owner’: the body, group or individual that has control over the project’s development. We discuss the roles of participants and their engagement with the project. • Individual, community-led or research-led • Organisations (RPOs, CSOs, public) • Commercial activities • Degree of engagement • Small vs large scale • Professionalism vs voluntarism • Science engagement and education • Links to decision making
- 51. Financial Aspects Unlike other contributions that are happening in citizen science (e.g. time, use of physical resources, use of knowledge and expertise), financial transactions stand out as an area that can lead to contention about the classification of a project. • Financial support for scientific research • Payment to take part in a project. • Incentives to participate in an activity.
- 52. Data & Knowledge The final section looks at how data- and knowledge- generation issues influence a given activity. • Data and knowledge generation. • Data ownership and use • Data quality • Local and lay knowledge-sharing and application • Opportunistic vs systematic data collection • Digital data-collection tools • Sharing personal and medical data
- 54. • The characteriscs working group included Muki Haklay, Ariel Lindner, Alice Motion, Bálint Balázs, Barbara Kieslinger, Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, Christian Nold, Daniel Dörler, Dilek Fraisl, Dorte Riemenschneider, Florian Heigl, Fredrik Brounéus, Gerid Hager, Katja Heuer, Katherin Wagenknecht, Katrin Vohland, Lea Shanley, Lionel Deveaux, Luigi Ceccaroni, Maike Weisspflug, Margaret Gold, Marzia Mazzonetto, Monika Mačiulienė, Sasha Woods, Soledad Luna, Susanne Hecker, Teresa Schaefer, Tim Woods, and Uta Wehn. • The development of these characteristics was supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 824580), project EU-Citizen.Science, the ERC Advanced Grant project ECSAnVis (grant agreement No. 694767). Thanks to the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation long term partnership,this work was partly supported by CRI Research Fellowships to Muki Haklay, Alice Motion, and Bastian Greshake Tzovaras.