The science of citizen science

Fuente: PANGAEA
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Burgess, Hillary K, DeBey, Lauren B, Froehlich, Halley E, Schmidt, Natalie, Theobald, Elinore J, Ettinger, Ailene K, HilleRisLambers, Janneke, Tewksbury, Josh, Parrish, Julia K
Formato: Dataset Open Access
Lenguaje:en
Publicado: PANGAEA 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1867168174914404352
author Burgess, Hillary K
DeBey, Lauren B
Froehlich, Halley E
Schmidt, Natalie
Theobald, Elinore J
Ettinger, Ailene K
HilleRisLambers, Janneke
Tewksbury, Josh
Parrish, Julia K
author_facet Burgess, Hillary K
DeBey, Lauren B
Froehlich, Halley E
Schmidt, Natalie
Theobald, Elinore J
Ettinger, Ailene K
HilleRisLambers, Janneke
Tewksbury, Josh
Parrish, Julia K
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents Biodiversity citizen science projects are growing in number, size, and scope, and are gaining recognition as valuable data sources that build public engagement. Yet publication rates indicate that citizen science is still infrequently used as a primary tool for conservation research and the causes of this apparent disconnect have not been quantitatively evaluated. To uncover the barriers to the use of citizen science as a research tool, we surveyed professional biodiversity scientists (n = 423) and citizen science project managers (n = 125). We conducted three analyses using non-parametric recursive modeling (random forest), using questions that addressed: scientists' perceptions and preferences regarding citizen science, scientists' requirements for their own data, and the actual practices of citizen science projects. For all three analyses we identified the most important factors that influence the probability of publication using citizen science data. Four general barriers emerged: a narrow awareness among scientists of citizen science projects that match their needs; the fact that not all biodiversity science is well-suited for citizen science; inconsistency in data quality across citizen science projects; and bias among scientists for certain data sources (institutions and ages/education levels of data collectors). Notably, we find limited evidence to suggest a relationship between citizen science projects that satisfy scientists' biases and data quality or probability of publication. These results illuminate the need for greater visibility of citizen science practices with respect to the requirements of biodiversity science and show that addressing bias among scientists could improve application of citizen science in conservation.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_864045
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2016
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle The science of citizen science
Burgess, Hillary K
DeBey, Lauren B
Froehlich, Halley E
Schmidt, Natalie
Theobald, Elinore J
Ettinger, Ailene K
HilleRisLambers, Janneke
Tewksbury, Josh
Parrish, Julia K
File content; File name; File size; Uniform resource locator/link to file
Biodiversity citizen science projects are growing in number, size, and scope, and are gaining recognition as valuable data sources that build public engagement. Yet publication rates indicate that citizen science is still infrequently used as a primary tool for conservation research and the causes of this apparent disconnect have not been quantitatively evaluated. To uncover the barriers to the use of citizen science as a research tool, we surveyed professional biodiversity scientists (n = 423) and citizen science project managers (n = 125). We conducted three analyses using non-parametric recursive modeling (random forest), using questions that addressed: scientists' perceptions and preferences regarding citizen science, scientists' requirements for their own data, and the actual practices of citizen science projects. For all three analyses we identified the most important factors that influence the probability of publication using citizen science data. Four general barriers emerged: a narrow awareness among scientists of citizen science projects that match their needs; the fact that not all biodiversity science is well-suited for citizen science; inconsistency in data quality across citizen science projects; and bias among scientists for certain data sources (institutions and ages/education levels of data collectors). Notably, we find limited evidence to suggest a relationship between citizen science projects that satisfy scientists' biases and data quality or probability of publication. These results illuminate the need for greater visibility of citizen science practices with respect to the requirements of biodiversity science and show that addressing bias among scientists could improve application of citizen science in conservation.
title The science of citizen science
topic File content; File name; File size; Uniform resource locator/link to file
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.864045