Successful citizen science

In our new section where we invite our readers to tell us about their work, lives and scientific passions we hear from Katherine Mathieson, Director of Programmes at the British Science Association who gives us her 4 tips for making your citizen science project a success A 2013 article in Nature magazine defines citizen science as “networks of non-scientists who help to analyse or collect data as part of a researcher-led project”. In some citizen science projects, volunteers simply submit an observation while in other projects, the volunteers take a more active role in research design. The main benefit of using a citizen science model is that much greater volumes of data can be collected or analysed than with other models. But there are other benefits – citizen science projects can be used as a way to engage public audiences with your discipline or research area, for example, or to raise the profile of your organisation. At the British Science Association, we have a rich history of citizens as a tool for engaging public audiences with science. This year (2014) we have two citizen science projects: an investigation into whether school kids drive flu epidemics, with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a study on how environmental change is affecting bumblebee populations, with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and EDF Energy’s the Pod. [caption id="attachment_39550" align="alignright" width="200"] Could your research benefit from the world of citizen science?[/caption] Here are my top 4 tips for researchers doing citizen science projects: 1. Show your gratitude Why do people volunteer their time to do citizen science projects? A survey of nearly 11,000 volunteers involved in Galaxy Zoo, a project to classify galaxies, found that the primary reason was to contribute to scientific research. So it’s important to thank the volunteers and to show how their work has contributed to the overall state of the research. For example, the Galaxy Zoo website lists the name of every one of over 180,000 people who has helped classify galaxies. 2. Give the data back It’s also important to keep the community informed about the project’s progress, and to do this in a way that the community who’s been involved can understand. Most people can’t read scientific papers – either they’re locked behind a paywall, or written in impenetrable language, or people just don’t know they exist. So you’ll need to find other ways to keep your community of citizen scientists engaged. If your community is geographically dispersed, then online media channels like blogs will be most useful. Here’s an example from the Conker Tree Science project: http://conkertreescience.blogspot.co.uk/ If you are working with a local community, then you can talk to them face-to-face, or consider local papers and radio. Also think about ways that you can enable your citizen scientists to do their own research on the data they’ve helped to collect. Can you publish the dataset online for example, perhaps with some guidance on how it might be analysed? 3. Don’t reinvent the wheel There are lots of resources to support researchers who want to start citizen science projects. For practical advice on setting up a citizen science project to collect new data, I recommend the Guide to Citizen Science produced by some of the UK’s most experienced Citizen Science researchers from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the Natural History Museum.  If your project requires members of the public to identify species, then consider tapping into existing communities of enthusiasts to help or linking to the Open University’s iSpot community. For projects that require classifications of existing datasets, consider making use of the Zooniverse platform. There are also a range of links & resources about citizen science on our own website and from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at www.citizenscience.org 4. Be creative (but clear) about what success looks like The criteria for measuring research success are already well understood (publications, citations, the REF, etc). But there are other ways that your citizen science project might help your organisation achieve its goals. For example, a citizen science project might be able to:

• Raise the profile of your institution among its local community
• Build your organisation’s national profile
• Enthuse & educate the public about your discipline
• Enable enthusiastic amateur scientists to do good quality research
• Encourage young people to take science further
• Contribute to an important public debate

You’ll need to be clear about which of these goals you’re aiming for and what measures you’ll use (e.g. media mentions, participants’ feedback from surveys, etc). At the British Science Association, we’re expanding our work on citizen science so if you’d like to work with us, please get in touch (http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/node/4870)