27 Facts About Citizen science

Citizen science is scientific research conducted with participation from the public.

Citizen science is used in a wide range of areas of study, with most citizen science research publications being in the fields of biology and conservation.

Citizen science can be used as a methodology where public volunteers help in collecting and classifying data, improving the scientific community's capacity.

Citizen science can involve more direct involvement from the public, with communities initiating projects researching environment and health hazards in their own communities.

Citizen science has been used more over time, a trend helped by technological advancements.

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Citizen science data is being used to develop machine learning algorithms.

Concerns over potential data quality issues, such as measurement errors and biases, in citizen science projects are recognized in the scientific community and there are statistical solutions and best practices available which can help.

Citizen involvement in scientific projects has become a means of encouraging curiosity and greater understanding of science whilst providing an unprecedented engagement between professional scientists and the general public.

John Losey, who created the Lost Ladybug citizen science project, has argued that the cost-effectiveness of citizen science data can outweigh data quality issues, if properly managed.

Citizen science has been described as challenging the "traditional hierarchies and structures of knowledge creation".

Some consider these individuals to be the fist citizen scientists, some consider figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Charles Darwin to be citizen scientists, while others feel that citizen science is a distinct movement that developed later on, building on the preceding history of science.

Study from 2016 indicates that the largest impact of citizen science is in research on biology, conservation and ecology, and is utilized mainly as a methodology of collecting and classifying data.

Citizen science projects have become increasingly focused on providing benefits to scientific research.

The Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900, is another example of a long-standing tradition of citizen science which has persisted to the present day, now containing a collection of six million handwritten migration observer cards that date back to the 19th century.

Citizen science scientists help gather data that will be analyzed by professional researchers, and can be used to produce bird population and biodiversity indicators.

Concept of citizen science has been extended to the ocean environment for characterizing ocean dynamics and tracking marine debris.

Citizen science is actively used for crop variety selection for climate adaptation, involving thousands of farmers.

Citizen science has made significant contributions to the analysis of biodiversity across the world.

Citizen science can be used to great effect in addition to the usual scientific methods in biodiversity monitoring.

The typical active method of species detection is able to collect data on the broad biodiversity of areas while citizen science approaches has shown to be more effective at identifying invasive species.

One of the first Internet-based citizen science experiments was NASA's Clickworkers, which enabled the general public to assist in the classification of images, greatly reducing the time to analyze large data sets.

One of the largest citizen science games is Eyewire, a brain-mapping puzzle game developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that now has over 200,000 players.

Citizen science networks are often involved in the observation of cyclic events of nature, such as effects of global warming on plant and animal life in different geographic areas, and in monitoring programs for natural-resource management.

Citizen science has been used to provide valuable data in hydrology, notably flood risk, water quality, and water resource management.

Citizen science includes projects that help monitor plastics and their associated pollution.

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Coronavirus studies and information that can help enable citizen science, many online resources are available through open access and open science websites, including portals run by the Cambridge University Press, the Europe branch of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, The Lancet, John Wiley and Sons, and Springer Nature.

Citizen science is often a theme at large conferences, such as the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.