Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science

Authors/Creators

Stephanie A. Collins
Miriam Sullivan, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Heather J. Bray

Abstract

It is often assumed that citizen science is inherently participatory in nature. However, citizen science projects exist along a continuum from data contribution to full co-creation. We invited 19 biologists to explore their conceptions of citizen science. Almost all participants defined citizen science as involving non-scientists in data collection. This definition acted as a barrier for scientists who did not see how citizen science could suit their research objectives. While interviewees perceived many societal and experiential benefits of contributory citizen science, deliberate design is needed to realise the full potential of citizen science for public engagement

RAS ID

53006

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2022

Volume

21

Issue

7

School

Centre for Learning and Teaching

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Publisher

SISSA Medialab

Comments

Collins, S. A., Sullivan, M., & Bray, H. J. (2022). Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science. Journal of Science Communication, 21(7). https://doi.org/10.22323/2.21070201

Recommended Citation

Collins, S. A., Sullivan, M., & Bray, H. J. (2022). Exploring scientists’ perceptions of citizen science for public engagement with science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/2.21070201