Topic
Citizen science
About: Citizen science is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2488 publications have been published within this topic receiving 58356 citations. The topic is also known as: crowd-sourced science & networked science.
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TL;DR: In recent months, there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals as mentioned in this paper, and the role of the amateur in geographic observation has been discussed.
Abstract: In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop inter- esting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? I compare this new phenomenon to more traditional citizen science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.
3,633 citations
TL;DR: This article describes the model for building and operating citizen science projects that has evolved at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology over the past two decades and hopes that the model will inform the fields of biodiversity monitoring, biological research, and science education while providing a window into the culture of citizen science.
Abstract: Citizen science enlists the public in collecting large quantities of data across an array of habitats and locations over long spans of time. Citizen science projects have been remarkably successful in advancing scientific knowledge, and contributions from citizen scientists now provide a vast quantity of data about species occurrence and distribution around the world. Most citizen science projects also strive to help participants learn about the organisms they are observing and to experience the process by which scientific investigations are conducted. Developing and implementing public data-collection projects that yield both scientific and educational outcomes requires significant effort. This article describes the model for building and operating citizen science projects that has evolved at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology over the past two decades. We hope that our model will inform the fields of biodiversity monitoring, biological research, and science education while providing a window into the cultur...
1,849 citations
TL;DR: A citizen scientist is a volunteer who collects and/or processes data as part of a scientific enquiry, particularly in ecology and the environmental sciences.
Abstract: A citizen scientist is a volunteer who collects and/or processes data as part of a scientific enquiry. Projects that involve citizen scientists are burgeoning, particularly in ecology and the environmental sciences, although the roots of citizen science go back to the very beginnings of modern science itself.
1,822 citations
TL;DR: Citizen science, the involvement of volunteers in research, has increased the scale of ecological field studies with continent-wide, centralized monitoring efforts and tapping of volunteers to conduct large, coordinated, field experiments as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Citizen science, the involvement of volunteers in research, has increased the scale of ecological field studies with continent-wide, centralized monitoring efforts and, more rarely, tapping of volunteers to conduct large, coordinated, field experiments. The unique benefit for the field of ecology lies in understanding processes occurring at broad geographic scales and on private lands, which are impossible to sample extensively with traditional field research models. Citizen science produces large, longitudinal data sets, whose potential for error and bias is poorly understood. Because it does not usually aim to uncover mechanisms underlying ecological patterns, citizen science is best viewed as complementary to more localized, hypothesis-driven research. In the process of addressing the impacts of current, global “experiments” altering habitat and climate, large-scale citizen science has led to new, quantitative approaches to emerging questions about the distribution and abundance of organisms across spa...
1,490 citations
TL;DR: This paper presents an innovative use of the Internet and information technologies that better enhances the opportunity for citizens to contribute their observations to science and the conservation of bird populations.
1,371 citations