What is Citizen Science?

Overall, the term “Citizen Science” refers to participation of the public in scientific research, often in collaboration with or supervised by professional scientists. It covers a broad range of activities (e.g. designing the research questions, data collection, observations, counting, interpretation of data, analysis, transcribing texts, publication and dissemination of results). Furthermore, Citizen Science is an approach of scientific work that may be used as a part of a broader scientific activity.

The European Citizen Science Association  published 10 principles of citizen science , which are the following:

1. Citizen science projects actively involve citizens in scientific endeavour that generates new knowledge or understanding.
2. Citizen science projects have a genuine science outcome.
3. Both the professional scientists and the citizen scientists benefit from taking part.
4. Citizen scientists may, if they wish, participate in multiple stages of the scientific process.
5. Citizen scientists receive feedback from the project.
6. Citizen science is considered a research approach like any other, with limitations and biases that should be considered and controlled for.
7. Citizen science project data and meta-data are made publicly available and where possible, results are published in open access format.
8. Citizen scientists are acknowledged in projects results and publications.
9. Citizen science programmes are evaluated for their scientific output, data quality, participant experience and wider societal or policy impact.
10. 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.

Citizen Science versus Crowdsourcing

In case of some citizen science projects, specifically “crowdsourcing” is sometimes mentioned (think about the “Did You Feel It?” project of the Royal Observatory of Belgium). While citizen science refers to the participation of the public in scientific projects, crowdsourcing is the engagement of a large group of people in the creation of new scientific knowledge – it is thus a specific way to include the public in projects.

Citizen Science and Public Engagement

Public participation and engagement are increasingly more present in the science landscape. While scientists used to be unreachable, mysterious figures, hiding in a laboratory, or far away on an expedition, they are nowadays more reachable and visible for the public. Besides, there is an ambition to stimulate research in line with citizens’ needs. To ensure inclusive, democratic and impactful research, public engagement is a key. Furthermore, effective public engagement plays an important role in informing policymaking and social relevant innovation – where there is a greater potential for policy adoption and effective change.  

Different types of public engagement exist: science communication, co-design, co-creation and co-assessment. The later three are all so-called “participation initiatieves”. Those go beyond merely informing and communicating to citizens, but do involve them in decision-making and R&I processes. Collaboration and participation are key in these initiatives.  

Co-design: In case of co-design citizens are stimulated to identify needs and priorities for R&I. Surveys, focus groups and citizen assemblies are often used as tools.

Co-creation: In case of co-creation citizens are involved in generating tangible outcomes. Often local challenges are addressed, and a longer timeliness of implementation is seen. Citizen Science is a component of co-creation. Citizen Science ensures that citizens can participate in research by collecting data (think about the signalling of weather phenomena for the RMI) or data analysis (think about the Radio Meteor Zoo project of BIRA-IASB). The public is sometimes also actively involved in shaping research questions.

Co-assessment: In case of co-assessment, there is a focus on the evaluation of R&I outcomes with stakeholders to ensure societal relevance and acceptance.