Choose a citizen science approach
In most citizen science to date, volunteers have been asked to act as data collectors: making and reporting observations. Volunteers have also been successfully involved in labour-intensive analytical tasks that require human expertise in pattern recognition - so-called crowd sourcing of data interpretation. Increasingly, scientists are making use of data that are generated automatically (or with minimal management) from sensors used by volunteers.
For the purposes of this guide, an emerging classification of citizen science is useful (Bonney et al. 2009). It focuses on the different methods through which the project is developed. Three main approaches are recognised:
1. Contributory projects are designed entirely by scientists. Participants primarily collect, or in the case of crowd sourcing, analyse data.
2. Collaborative projects are also designed by scientists, but participants are involved in more than one stage of the scientific process (perhaps contributing or analysing data, helping to inform the way in which the questions are addressed or communicating findings).
3. Co-created projects are designed collaboratively. Scientists and participants or communities work together in partnership. At least some of the volunteer participants are involved in most or all steps of the scientific process.
If you are considering the option of citizen science, we recommend that you weigh up the relative costs and benefits of the various approaches and decide which is most appropriate. This will have a strong influence on the overall feel of your projectand how you should go about setting it up.
In reality, some projects use a combination of approaches, perhaps including a core group of highly involved participants who help to develop new research questions and methods, alongside a wider group of participants who contribute their observations. Within the UK, voluntary biological recording schemes and societies are extremely active within the field of citizen science and have a long history of developing projects using each of the above approaches.
The contrasting approaches todevelopment of contributory and co-created citizen scienceare explored further here.