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Oct 11, 2021 Article

Onto new horizons: insights from the WeObserve project to strengthen the awareness, acceptability and sustainability of Citizen Observatories in Europe

by Gerid Hager , Margaret Gold , Uta Wehn , Raquel Ajates , Linda See , Mel Woods , Chrysovalantis Tsiakos , Joan Masó , Dilek Fraisl , Inian Moorthy , Dahlia Domian , Steffen Fritz

WeObserve delivered the first European-wide Citizen Observatory (CO) knowledge platform to share best practices, to address challenges and to inform practitioners, policy makers and funders of COs. We present key insights from WeObserve activities into leveraging challenges to create interlinked solutions, connecting with international frameworks and groups, advancing the field through communities of practice and practitioner networks, and fostering an enabling environment for COs. We also discuss how the new Horizon Europe funding programme can help to further advance the CO concept, and vice versa, how COs can provide a suitable mechanism to support the ambitions of Horizon Europe.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Gamification for social perception: introducing scientific literacy to dabblers in citizen science

by Emilio Velis , Diego Torres , Gino Caballero

Understanding scientific concepts is a crucial factor in motivating dabblers at the start of co-created citizen science projects. This article describes PACMAC, a card-based cooperative card game aimed at introducing dabblers to hypothesis and falsifiability concepts through the visualization of a social perception map. The game was evaluated in five neighborhoods from El Salvador. The results showed that PACMAP is approachable for participants of different demographics to develop an understanding of the concepts of hypotheses and falsifiability.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Reaching the limits of co-creation in citizen science — exemplified by the linguistic citizen humanities project ‘On everyone’s mind and lips — German in Austria’

by Barbara Heinisch

Co-creation aims at integrating citizens in the entire research process. The citizen linguistics project German in Austria tests this approach in the humanities based on the assumption that language is ubiquitous. The project combines different forms of public participation, including a co-created format, where citizens can raise (and answer) research questions about the German language in Austria and a linguistic treasure hunt, where citizens collect and analyze data on linguistic landscapes. However, co-creation was hard to implement. Despite a high number of participants, their willingness to contribute to more than one research step was low.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Participant motivation to engage in a citizen science campaign: the case of the TESS network

by Irene Celino , Gloria Re Calegari , Mario Scrocca , Jaime Zamorano , Esteban Gonzalez Guardia

Citizen science involves laymen in some steps of a scientific experiment: citizens are volunteers devoting their free time to citizen science projects. Therefore it is important to investigate the factors influencing their motivation and engagement. In this paper, we present our study to investigate the motivation factors of the TESS photometer network participants, an initiative to collect light pollution data. We present the results and insight of our investigation and the instrument we adopted, which can be useful for the broad citizen science community.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Citizen science and crowdsourcing in the field of marine scientific research — the MaDCrow project

by Paolo Diviacco , Antonio Nadali , Massimiliano Nolich , Andrea Molinaro , Massimiliano Iurcev , Rodrigo Carbajales , Alessandro Busato , Alessandro Pavan , Lorenzo Grio , Francesca Malfatti

Marine research is as important as very demanding since it requires expensive infrastructures and resources. Scientific institutions, on the contrary, have very limited funding so that the seas remain, still, mostly unexplored. Another serious concern is that society at large often resonates with fake news, while scientists sometimes tend to bias research with their backgrounds and paradigms. We think that all these issues can be addressed opening the process of knowledge building to the questions and needs of stakeholders and laypeople. The MaDCrow project proposed and tested several paths to attain these goals.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Engaged Citizen Social Science or the public participation in social science research

by Rita Campos , José Monteiro , Cláudia Carvalho

Acknowledging the consolidation of citizen science, this paper aims to foster a collective debate on two visible gaps of the field. First, how to overcome the limited participation of social sciences and humanities in the broader field of citizen science, still dominated by natural sciences. Second, how to develop a citizen social science that allows for an active participation of citizens and for a critical engagement with contemporary societies. The authors coordinate a state-sponsored program of scientific dissemination within a Portuguese research institution and this paper intends to lay the groundwork for a future project of Citizen Social Science based on a new concept of “engaged citizen social science”.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 11, 2021 Article

Investigating the process of ethical approval in citizen science research: the case of Public Health

by Antonella Ficorilli , Giovanni Maccani , Mara Balestrini , Annibale Biggeri , Bruna De Marchi , Frederique E. M. Froeling , Florence Gignac , Regina Grazuleviciene , Gerard Hoek , Tjaša Kanduč , David Kocman , Valeria Righi , Xavier Basagana

Undertaking citizen science research in Public Health involving human subjects poses significant challenges concerning the traditional process of ethical approval. It requires an extension of the ethics of protection of research subjects in order to include the empowerment of citizens as citizen scientists. This paper investigates these challenges and illustrates the ethical framework and the strategies developed within the CitieS-Health project. It also proposes first recommendations generated from the experiences of five citizen science pilot studies in environmental epidemiology within this project.

Volume 20Issue 062021Special Issue: Third International ECSA Conference, Trieste 2020 (Ecsa Conference 2020)

Oct 04, 2021 Article

Co-benefits associated with public support for climate-friendly COVID-19 recovery policies and political activism

by Jagadish Thaker , Brian Floyd

Scientists highlight that actions that address environmental protection and climate change can also help with reducing infectious disease threats. Results using data from a national sample survey in New Zealand indicate that perceptions of co-benefits of actions to address environmental protection that also protect against infectious disease outbreaks such as the coronavirus is associated with policy support and political engagement. This association was partly mediated through perceived collective efficacy. Local councils with higher level of community collective efficacy were more likely to declare climate emergency. Communication about potential co-benefits is likely to shape public engagement and enact policy change.

Volume 20Issue 052021

Sep 29, 2021 Article

Understanding knowledge and perceptions of genome editing technologies: a textual analysis of major agricultural stakeholder groups

by Matthew Robbins , Christopher Calabrese , Jieyu Ding Featherstone , George A. Barnett

The promise of CRISPR-Cas9 (CRISPR) genomic editing applied to agriculture is promoted widely by scientists. We utilized textual analysis methods to compare perceptions of this innovation held by various stakeholder groups — scientists, policymakers, farmers, and the general public. Results reveal distinctions in the semantic structure and concepts emphasized across groups. Scientists and policymakers exhibited a high level of technical sophistication while emphasizing the potential societal benefits, while farmers and the general public focused on perceived personal benefits and familiarity with the issue. These results will aid development of message strategies bridging the gap between the scientific community and key publics.

Volume 20Issue 052021

Sep 27, 2021 Essay

Co-created citizen science: challenging cultures and practice in scientific research

by Jade Gunnell , Yaela Golumbic , Tess Hayes , Michelle Cooper

Co-created citizen science offers practical tools for implementing science communication theories by increasing public participation in scientific research, empowering communities and advancing situated scientific knowledge. However, delivering such an approach presents a number of key challenges around funding, fostering working partnerships between scientists and citizens and ensuring all stakeholders receive sufficient benefits from the process. In this essay we draw from science communication and citizen science literature to describe these challenges and discuss the opportunities that will enable co-created practices to prosper.

Volume 20Issue 052021

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