What we are doing in Research Gate can be considered as Citizen Sciences?
What do you think, please kindly write your own idea?
In its simplest form, I define Citizen Science (CS) as "Any type of pre-planned conservation activity in the field by one or more individuals without formal qualifications overseen by one or more individuals with formal academic degrees and other qualifications." Specific kinds of CS things that we most often hear about, for examples, are bird counts, bird banding, whale watching, and other types of field work that involve observation and simple counting.
I've added a paper that may be of interest and discusses the term Citizen science.
Hello Parisa; Citizen science provides a large corps of observers who gather data for research projects that are labor-intensive ones. For instance, I participate in two of them.
1. Road-kill observations. I report road-killed vertebrates to a program at Univ. California, Davis. The goal is to stretches of roads with high concentrations of such deaths. Knowing about those will permit constructing mitigation measures that will reduce the number.
2. Wildlife camera images need to be evaluated. The Sedgwick Research Preserve of the Univ. Calif. has a large archive of those images that need to be evaluated. The citizen scientist notes the species and numbers of individuals in each image. Those data allow monitoring of resident species.
The activity is a contribution to the research and is a VERY satisfying bit of work. There are such projects in Astronomy, oceanography, meteorology, social sciences and, I imagine, many other fields. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Excellent question and the best answers, thank you everybody in this window!
Citizen science is the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. Through citizen science, people share and contribute to data monitoring and collection programs
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/citizen-science/
Citizen science, also known as community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or volunteer monitoring, is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists, and is sometimes described as "public participation in scientific research," participatory monitoring, and participatory action research whose outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific communities capacity, as well as increasing the public's understanding of science https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science
Citizen science is an important vehicle for democratizing science and promoting the goal of universal and equitable access to scientific data and information. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.650760/full
Citizen science, as a new discipline, is changing the scientific landscape for both the scientific community and the greater public. It can be classified into one of three types: (1) contributive, where citizens gather data; (2) collaborative, where citizens may also analyze or interpret this data; or (3) co-created, where citizens participate in all levels of a project, from designing the research question to analyzing data.
Contributive and collaborative science allows experiments, explorations, or inquiries to run on a large-scale, ongoing basis, which provides scientists with large and diverse data sets that might have been otherwise unavailable. (While it is true that many research projects take place over long periods even without citizen science participation, the large-scale volunteer efforts of citizen scientists allow rapid scaling for relatively little capital.) Additionally, it provides opportunity for two-way engagement between the public and scientists, which can lead to increased topical literacy in participants and has the capacity to influence policy and decision-making at a range of scales, including, for example, conservation efforts.
https://magazine.scienceconnected.org/2018/09/citizen-science-important-tool/
This is well detailed in what we know as indigenous knowledge. A lot of information can be found in citizens which needs to be brought out clearly by researchers like us.
Citizen science provide good data in many fields of research.
In astronomy amateurs provide good data both from direct observations, such as variable stars. To those who go trough photographs to find asteroids and transient phenomena.
In biology we get quite some information from amateurs doing observations of birds and mammals. But we do have one person who is doing excellent work on insects, just for his own interest. Though his work would be quite more useful if he did it more systematically. Yet any data is of interest, as this area gotten very little survey.
Now that indigenous knowledge got a mention, I can add that traditional knowledge can add a lot and should not be disregarded. I am one of those, with an aptitude for science I have gotten a bit further than most. But I do lack an Ph.D. While I have never forgotten to ask locals, some times they provide excellent information, on other times one need to 'filter' or ask follow up questions.
And that bring my reply to one almost different subject, how to judge that the information you get is reliable as for what call was heard of the time of observation. The main solution in my own case is not to ask leading questions.
Here's an answer from a review we completed in NZ:
Broadly defined, citizen science describes scientific investigations in which volunteers participate in scientific studies designed to answer real-world questions. Recent studies have defined citizen science in a variety of ways to emphasis public participation in scientific research, aspects of volunteerism, and the generation of community-based knowledge (e.g. local knowledge and traditional knowledge). The term is often used to describe involve public participation in projects designed and run by scientists. In contrast, the terms ‘community science’, ‘civic science’, and ‘community-based participatory research’, have a focus on orienting research projects around community issues and work to minimize the divide between professional scientists and local volunteers. These projects begin with community-defined questions, and involve the participation and input of community members throughout the entire process of data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results.
Despite the above distinctions, community science or civic science may be regarded as various forms of the overarching term 'citizen science'.
Citizen science (CS; also known as community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists. Citizen science is sometimes described as "public participation in scientific research," participatory monitoring, and participatory action research whose outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific communities capacity, as well as increasing the public's understanding of science.
Hence the importance of this science these days when the world suffers from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to social distancing.
“Citizen science”, may act as a platform through which scientific discoveries of world research communities can be infused to the greater part of societies for global citizen in the form of (i) learning technologies; (ii) scientific discoveries (iii) sharing the ideas; (iv) prospective benefits of the greater social communities and (v) awareness of scientific discoveries for future development and direction. Rabindra nath Chatterjee
‘Research Gate’ is the unique platform for the research community of the globe. It not only acts as repository of publications of data science in the globe, but also introduced categorization the publications through evaluating systems of subject and merit using some digital mechanisms ( although it may not be the proper reflection of merit of the publications, since it mainly follows journal’s rating system ). However, the core objective of ‘Research Gate’ is to build up “Citizen science”, platform through which scientific discoveries of world research communities can be infused to the greater part of societies for the benefit of global citizens in the form of (i) learning technologies; (ii) scientific discoveries (iii) sharing the ideas; (iv) prospective benefits of the greater social communities and (v) awareness of health science ( e.g. Covid 19) or other scientific discoveries (environmental impact on earth science etc.) for future scientific strategies and direction of research in our globe.
Dear Dr. Parisa Ziarati,
The "Demociencia" or Citizen Science is an extremely useful resource because it tries to advance scientific knowledge beyond the borders of the laboratory or the work of the traditional field. Today it is recognized as a process that gathers evidence of various natural phenomena or not and that not only contributes to the development of scientific research, but also that the common citizen thus enters into greater contact with their environment through the Scientific Community and with the environment, what's more citizen science has more and more allies all over the Planet. New technologies have facilitated connections between all of us, but the systematic collection and analysis of data collected both by specialists and by the common citizen has remained a substantial tool of scientific analysis over time, for this reason it should be emphasized this connection that it can also be obtained with ResearchGate. The University Researcher in general should advocate for a methodology of "Citizen Social Science" in which the researchers "residents of the research sites" (example RG) play a central role in the key activities of the process and progress of the Research and even further: research design, research utility, data collection where necessary and presentation of the result obtained.
In order to reflect more carefully on these points, I recommend taking a look at the following Research papers. Many thanks:
https://www.academia.edu/11374334/Citizen_Science
https://www.academia.edu/50355291/Mayssa_Jallad_Nikolay_Mintchev_Elisabetta_Pietrostefani_Mariam_Daher_and_Henrietta_L_Moore_Citizen_Social_Science_and_Pathways_to_Prosperity_Co_designing_Research_and_Impact_in_Beirut_Lebanon_2021_International_Journal_of_Social_Research_Methodology
https://www.academia.edu/50735376/A_new_approach_to_generating_research_quality_data_through_citizen_science_The_USA_National_Phenology_Monitoring_System
Dear Dr Parisa Ziarati ,
Citizen science, through increasing awareness of nature, is an effective technique for equipping children with the abilities necessary to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Citizen scientists may also be taught to gather data, gaining practical experience conducting actual scientific studies.
Science is a major driving force behind social changes. There is no aspect of modern life that is untouched by the effects and products of science and technology. Science has also a vital stake in progressive politics, and governance, in turn, one of the chief guarantors of social justice and happiness. Citizen science may play vital roles to infuse the data science to the greater society for improvement of the quality of life.
Civic science - that's what voluntary help from non-specialists is now called. At different times, scientists were patronized by kings, marquises and other dukes, sometimes by the church. Then there were municipalities, boards of trustees, sponsors ... But there have always been enthusiasts who disinterestedly engaged in research in addition to their main job.
There is a whole Zooniverse platform that brings together dozens of similar projects in various fields of science, from history to biology.
The most lively and active type of civic science is precisely the collection of data, the information that cannot be obtained while sitting at a computer. This includes the usual types of volunteering, for example, participation in archaeological expeditions, assistance in working in reserves, interviewing people for ethnographic and sociological research, and so on.
Nowadays, projects for the observation of flora and fauna are gaining great popularity - for example, more than three and a half million users have already registered in the https://www.inaturalist.org/ application, who have recorded 57 million observations.
The most famous examples of civil science projects: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo/ where volunteers study space imagery, https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/r-dot-bains/ rodent-little-brother-secret-lives-of-mice / classify collective observation diary of laboratory mice behavior, https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/penguintom79/penguin-watch
identification of penguins in satellite imagery. A new format is gaining popularity - puzzle games, in which the data analysis process is actually packed.
I'll bet it has to do with social responsibilities, climate change and social movements.
Historically speaking, citizen science has been around for ages. Sailors in the 1800s jotted down currents and wind, which led to better predictions of ocean hazards. The Audubon Society, which is 120 years old, continues to celebrate its volunteer-run annual Christmas bird count.
This year alone, citizen science apps have seen a tremendous increase in users:
- Zooniverse reported that 200,000 participants contributed over 5 million classifications, the equivalent of approximately 48 years of research in one week alone.
- SciStarter, a website that connects citizen scientists with active research projects, recorded a 480 percent increase in contributions to projects in April 2020 over April 2019.
- iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society, expects to hit a record 50 million observations in coming weeks.
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird has had a 29 percent increase in reports so far this year, compared with the last.
- NestWatch, which encourages people to track sightings of bird nests, saw a 41 percent increase year over year.
Dear Parisa, I believe hat RG is playing such role as all scientific information are catered to citizens of all all ranks of the society
Dear Dr. @Parisa Ziarati,
The "Demociencia" or Citizen Science is an extremely useful resource because it tries to advance scientific knowledge beyond the borders of the laboratory or the work of the traditional field. Today it is recognized as a process that gathers evidence of various natural phenomena or not and that not only contributes to the development of scientific research, but also that the common citizen thus enters into greater contact with their environment through the Scientific Community and with the environment, what's more citizen science has more and more allies all over the Planet. New technologies have facilitated connections between all of us, but the systematic collection and analysis of data collected both by specialists and by the common citizen has remained a substantial tool of scientific analysis over time, for this reason it should be emphasized this connection that it can also be obtained with ResearchGate. The University Researcher in general should advocate for a methodology of "Citizen Social Science" in which the researchers "residents of the research sites" (example RG) play a central role in the key activities of the process and progress of the Research and even further: research design, research utility, data collection where necessary and presentation of the result obtained.
In order to reflect more carefully on these points, I recommend taking a look at the following Research papers.
Chapter Citizen Science
Article Citizens and cities: Leveraging citizen science and big data...
Article A new approach to generating research-quality data through c...
Although science has progressed immensely, much of the society has not benefited from knowing about this progress. Someone needs to tell the members of the society that "want to learn".
As an example: In the place where I take my car to get serviced where a lot of people work I brought a box of rock samples, all labelled with extra notes where are they found and what is their uses in society. Its contents were all taken by interested people the very first day! There is an appetite for knowledge, that you call citizen science.
Hello all; Mr. Issigonis has a brilliant idea. It presents useful information without a sermon or argument! Great! Cheers, Jim Des Lauriers
Citizen science occurs when people share what they observe from the physical world to provide information to the scientific community.
It helps to make sure that scientific agendas are well aligned with grand societal challenges and thus it enhances societal trust in science and helps funding bodies to make a better investment into research development
Citizen science is the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. Through citizen science, people share and contribute to data monitoring and collection programs.
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