Community science efforts often address environmental issues affecting community well-being, particularly among economically disadvantaged populations. However, the lack of clear evaluation frameworks makes defining success of these efforts difficult. Combining an evaluative lens with practitioners’ perspectives, we developed a typology that describes success in concrete ways using measurable incremental outcomes for conceptual or long-term goals. We interviewed 12 experienced practitioners about goals and outcomes relevant to their projects. Using thematic and content analyses, we analyzed the interviews to draft our Goal-Outcome Typology, which we refined with practitioner feedback and SMART guidelines (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely). The final Typology consists of eight goals: (1) improved community identity, (2) enhanced community empowerment, (3) community efforts seen as credible, (4) established community governance structure, (5) increased community-level science literacy, (6) new or enforced policies or regulations, (7) improved quality of life in the community, and (8) expansion or replication of the community effort. Each goal includes example outcomes illustrated with a practice-based vignette. Practitioners can tailor the Typology for their own context, embed it within a logic model, and develop measures of their outcomes to understand and share the progress and impact of their efforts. Evaluating these measures can help refine project activities, recruit and retain members, acquire funding, and inform research on how community science achieves social and environmental change. Ultimately, the Typology addresses an important gap in providing resources that support community priorities while advancing evidence-based community science practice.
Agricultural landscapes are key drivers of biodiversity change but they remain underrepresented in citizen science initiatives, particularly in tropical regions. This study evaluates the potential of citizen science to support biodiversity monitoring and learning processes within agricultural systems through the Agri Andes Ecuador project, the first iNaturalist initiative in the country focused on agricultural biodiversity. Between July 2019 and December 2023, we documented plant–insect interactions and broader biodiversity across agricultural landscapes above 2,000 meters above sea level (m a.s.l.), combining training activities, bioblitzes, and workshops to engage students, farmers, and institutional actors. The project generated 32,457 observations of 2,630 species, primarily plants (51.5%) and insects (39.3%), contributed by a diverse community of observers and identifiers. Results demonstrate that citizen science can produce ecologically meaningful data, including insights into plant–insect relationships, with 21 insect species associated with 27 plant species. Bioblitz events significantly increased participation and observations, although variability in sampling approaches influenced data consistency. Participation was largely driven by students, while farmer engagement remained limited, highlighting the need for context-sensitive approaches addressing barriers such as connectivity and digital access. Beyond data collection, the project fostered processes of knowledge co-production, enabling participants to observe and interpret ecological interactions, potentially reshaping their understanding of insects in agroecosystems. Overall, our findings suggest that citizen science can bridge biodiversity monitoring and social learning in agricultural contexts, supporting more informed and sustainable management practices.
The amount of biodiversity data collected in citizen science projects is increasing, yet we often know little about sampling biases in the data. We examined such biases in the temporal and spatial distribution of observation records uploaded to the iNaturalist platform from Hungary. We found that the number of records has grown rapidly recently in the past ten years. We explored temporal patterns and found that records peaked in early summer, on weekend days, and at mid-day. Engagement varied across participants: The majority of records were uploaded by a few enthusiastic observers, while most users uploaded less than 10 records. Records of insects, plants, and vertebrates were more likely to be uploaded than other groups, and vertebrates had more complete species coverage than others. Both landscape and socioeconomic factors explained the spatial variation in the records: For instance, similar to other countries, there were more records submitted and records of more diverse taxa in places that were closer to urban areas, closer to protected areas, had greater land use diversity, and were at higher altitude. Species recording, using tools like iNaturalist, can fill taxonomic gaps in knowledge in countries like Hungary that lack large citizen science communities, especially for less popular invertebrate taxa. However, the presence of sampling biases demonstrates the need to better design biodiversity mapping projects to fill spatial gaps in coverage and so inform conservation decision-making.
Citizen science encompasses a wide spectrum of practices that differ not only in the degree of participant involvement but also in key design decisions shaping collaboration, communication, and incentives. While prior research has offered influential typologies based on participation levels, comparatively little empirical work has examined the broader configuration of design dimensions. This study addresses this gap by applying a comprehensive taxonomy for participatory processes to survey data from 60 projects listed on Germany's national citizen science platform. The analysis focuses on top-down design decisions made by project initiators and combines descriptive analysis with cluster analysis. The results identify two loosely separated design configurations that organize projects into broader patterns rather than strict categories, aligning with crowdsourcing-oriented and participatory research-oriented models. The analysis further reveals systematic associations between these configurations and the projects' disciplinary orientations. Although the empirical basis is grounded in the German citizen science ecosystem, the conceptual framework and findings contribute to a broader understanding of design heterogeneity in citizen science and provide a basis for more systematic comparison of project architectures.
Citizen science (CS) has grown in recent years in terms of popularity, project numbers, and content. Yet, even though there is previous research on the demographics of participants in CS projects, it is unclear whether participants can be reasonably classified into specific groups based on their demographics. Such knowledge could help engage, retain, and attract CS participants in the future. Therefore, the research presented here identified distinctive participant groups in two different ecological CS projects (N1 = 847, N2 = 223) by means of cluster analyses based on participants’ demographics (i.e., age, gender, educational background, status of employment). The results revealed four similar clusters across both projects: (1) Academic Employees who were middle-aged employees with a high education level and full-time or part-time employment, (2) All-Round Workers who were middle-aged employees with a medium education level and full-time or part-time employment, (3) Academic Free-Timers with a high education level and no employment, and (4) Free-Timers with a medium education level and no employment. Further analyses revealed that all four clusters engaged roughly similarly in the data collection phase of both CS projects. In the data analysis phase, the Academic Free-Timers were more engaged than the other clusters, or at least visited the platform, whereas the All-Round Workers and Free-Timers were less active in one of the projects. Thus, this research reveals that person-centered approaches provide alternative descriptions of CS participants and their engagement in CS projects.
Despite increasing adoption of participatory methodologies across Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM), challenges persist in validating and incorporating user-generated content (UGC) into institutional systems. This paper presents findings from an exploratory mixed-methods study examining how institutions navigate these complexities across heritage crowdsourcing and citizen science projects. Drawing on survey data from heritage practitioners, collections management systems (CMS) specialists, and citizen science coordinators, combined with semi-structured interviews with professionals from heritage and citizen science, the research examines the technical, organisational, and procedural dimensions of crowdsourced-content integration. Building on substantial scholarship examining GLAM crowdsourcing and platform adaptation for heritage contexts, alongside citizen science quality assurance, this research extends current understanding by identifying three integration approaches—peripheral contribution, supervised collaboration, and workflow integration—that differ in operational mechanisms while all preserving institutional-validation authority. Technical integration, the study reveals, does not necessarily entail epistemic redistribution: all three models, in fact, converge on an epistemic-authority spectrum, retaining control over whose knowledge receives legitimisation, regardless of how technically advanced the approach. The findings, instead, establish inter-professional collaboration, staff development, and sustained institutional investment as prerequisites for successful integration, locating systematic capacity constraints rather than conceptual resistance as the primary barrier. Comparative analysis exposes both transferable validation approaches and domain-specific requirements, with implications for heritage practice and participatory-science theory alike.
Gold mining has been widely associated with environmental contamination and related health risks, yet conventional state-centered monitoring systems often remain fragmented, weakly enforced, and inaccessible to affected communities. Citizen science (CS) has emerged globally as a participatory alternative, but research in Thailand has largely focused on project outcomes and top-down biodiversity monitoring, leaving the design processes of community-based CS initiatives underexamined. This article reports a formative, process-based evaluation of a community-based CS program designed to monitor environmental health impacts of a large-scale gold mine (Gold Mine Z) in Northern Thailand. It assesses program design across three interrelated dimensions: scientific quality and governance, participant engagement and capacity, and societal impact and communication. Empirically, the evaluation is based on the analysis of 26 in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders. Findings indicate that the program's credibility in a contested governance setting is strongly associated with formal accountability structures, including independent oversight, validated monitoring protocols, and institutional response pathways linking citizen-generated data to relevant authorities. At the same time, efforts to strengthen scientific rigor and procedural safeguards may raise participation thresholds, potentially narrowing inclusivity unless supported by sustained capacity building and resources. Communication also emerges as a central design variable. Uncertainty about the interpretation and external use of monitoring results can undermine trust even when scientific protocols are robust. This article argues that, in politically sensitive and low-trust contexts, CS is best understood as an embedded accountability infrastructure in which governance arrangements, methodological rigor, and communication practices jointly shape legitimacy, participation, and prospects for policy relevance.
Community engagement is central to both museum work and citizen science practice. However, both the museum field and the citizen science field have received calls to reexamine the purpose and function of community engagement in order to evolve from transactional relationships toward co-creative partnerships driven by the strengths, priorities, and needs of those communities. Community science-a collaborative approach that leverages scientific research and innovation to address community priorities-builds on the strengths of museums and citizen science practice while responding to this call for deeper partnership. This article features three museum-community partnerships as case studies for the application and impact of community science. Wide-ranging projects address community priorities related to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI); food access and climate change; and Indigenous youth leadership in community-led conservation. Drawing on direct co-author experience, with support from formal evaluation, project teams share broadly applicable lessons about community science in practice. Key takeaways include: dedicated time builds strong, equitable partnerships; shared leadership requires intentionality and trust; success requires matching scope to resources; and flexible, trust-based philanthropy is critical.
Public access to citizen science remains uneven, with many communities underrepresented in participatory research opportunities. Public libraries, as trusted community institutions, hold the potential to bridge these gaps by serving as hubs for lifelong learning and civic engagement. This case study examines the strategies, theoretical grounding, and outcomes that supported the adoption, scaling, and sustainability of Libraries as Community Hubs for Citizen Science, a multi-phase initiative led by Arizona State University and SciStarter. Designed to embed citizen science innovations within public library systems, the initiative progressed through three phases-an Arizona pilot (2017-2019), a scale-up pilot (2020-2021), and an ongoing national expansion (2021-2024+)- that collectively tested, refined, and demonstrated a replicable model for institutionalizing participatory science in libraries. Drawing on mixed-method evaluation data and informed by a theory of change based in educational scaling (Coburn 2003), adult learning (Knowles et al. 2015), and the role of libraries as facilitator organizations and conduits for lifelong learning (Falk and Dierking 2010; Lankes 2016), the analysis identifies key mechanisms that supported adoption and sustained engagement of citizen science in libraries. These included staff capacity-building, collaboration with local communities, and national outreach through professional learning communities and library networks. Findings demonstrate that libraries can serve as durable civic infrastructures for public participation in science-expanding equitable access, fostering ongoing engagement in citizen science, and connecting communities to research. We conclude by distilling essential elements and transferable lessons for other GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) institutions, both in the United States (US) and globally, offering a conceptual framework for embedding participatory science into GLAM organizational practices to advance long-term public engagement with research.
Many participatory science project leaders wish for K–12 students to engage in their projects at school to increase project awareness and data collected while supporting students’ learning about real-world science research, but there is limited guidance on how to do this effectively. This essay shares lessons from a 5-year study on participatory science support materials in upper elementary classrooms and offers practical suggestions for participatory science projects that wish to create their own educational resources. We found that project implementation is most effective when teachers have materials that address how to integrate the project with what they already teach. To help project leaders gauge the fit of their projects in K–12 settings, we share common barriers teachers face and questions we asked when developing materials for using the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) and the Lost Ladybug Project in fifth grade classrooms; and three recommendations for creating support materials for school-based participatory science that highlight (1) the value of encouraging sustained involvement in data collection or other project work, (2) creating flexible materials that benefit both teachers and the project, and (3) seeking guidance from K–12 teachers at every stage of support materials development. Well-designed, educator-informed support materials that align with curriculum requirements and engage students can make participatory science projects more accessible in K–12 settings, and we offer suggestions for how to create them.
Citizen science projects are widely recognized as contexts for a variety of informal science education outcomes. Much previous research on learning in citizen science has taken place in single-project contexts. However, learning is a highly individualized and contextual process that includes experiences beyond a project. We take a holistic, life-course view of learning to investigate the role facilitated citizen science experiences in public libraries play in the lifelong process of science socialization. Libraries provide a community-based context for lifelong STEM learning, and librarians offer unique insights thanks to their familiarity and deep understanding of their patrons' experiences with their programs. Using a multiple case study approach involving interviews with nine public librarians in rural, suburban, and urban locations across the US, we adapted the five domains of socialization from Bixler et al.'s (2011) environmental socialization theory to explore how library-based facilitated citizen science programming supports access, accumulation of experiences, competency development, social support, and identity formation. Our findings validate the use of this framework in citizen science contexts and demonstrate that libraries are supporting all five domains of science socialization- most notably access, accumulation of experiences, and social support. This reinforces prior work indicating that facilitated citizen science has the potential to engage new and diverse audiences. Findings also highlight specific opportunities for libraries (and other facilitators) to better support the socialization process.
Arctic research is shifting from a culture of scientist-driven inquiry and extractive relationships with Indigenous communities to a culture more conscious of local priorities and reciprocal research relationships. Today, Arctic research has dual goals of examining circumpolar issues through large-scale studies and collaborating with local individuals and communities through approaches such as community and citizen science (CCS). Scientists’ use of CCS is already established and growing in the Arctic and sub-Arctic (“the North”), but there is limited information about why they choose CCS as a research method. Understanding how scientists perceive CCS in the Northern context can help gauge the culture shift toward collaborating with local individuals and communities. We held semi-structured interviews with 23 scientists to examine their perceived benefits and challenges to using CCS methods in their work, and their motivations for doing so. Scientists described their benefits, challenges, and motivations across five themes: actionable science, cross-cultural co-production of knowledge, data, the interdisciplinary nature of CCS research, and scientist-participant relationships. We found that scientists see the potential to make a difference in peoples’ lives as both a benefit and a motivator. They focused on the benefits of CCS data over the challenges. Building and sustaining relationships with non-scientist partners, particularly Indigenous communities, is a benefit and challenge for many scientists. Our results help characterize scientists’ perceptions of CCS in the North and suggest a potential shift in the culture and priorities of Arctic research.
Citizen science has expanded globally in recent decades, yet its institutionalization in Israel has been relatively recent. In recognition of the potential of citizen science to advance biodiversity conservation, public engagement, and scientific research, the Israel Center for Citizen Science (ICCS) was formally launched in February 2025 after a five-year planning and preparation phase. Herein, we share the journey from concept to reality, highlighting how the unique setting of a natural history museum has fostered nationwide partnerships and collaborations spanning conservation organizations, youth groups, and local initiatives. This process extends beyond its local context, situating ICCS as a model for institutionalizing citizen science within museums and informal science institutions. We describe the principles that guided ICCS’s establishment, organized around five components that together capture the institutional, social, and scientific mechanisms needed to sustain citizen science: (1) institutional embedding and governance, (2) co-creation and stakeholder engagement, (3) infrastructure and resource integration, (4) capacity building and facilitation, and (5) research-informed practice. We illustrate the contribution of this model to both individual projects and the broader citizen science community through case studies of three initiatives of different scale and magnitude: The Big Backyard Bird Count, the School Nature Challenge, and the Snail Tales project. We conclude with a discussion on the opportunities and challenges ahead, and emphasize the contribution of this process as a model for other countries and institutions seeking to develop citizen science capacity.
Biodiversity-focused contributory science platforms generate massive quantities of opportunistic records for research, but data are spatially, temporally, and taxonomically biased. While research attempting to quantify these biases abounds, less is known about how varied user motivations and behavior shapes how data accrue. Here, we compare how different iNaturalist user groups prioritize where and when they sample in the southeastern United States. We categorized users by participation level and traveler status, and examined how these groups differentially sample across land cover categories, urban and rural areas, protected land, urban parks, low-income urban neighborhoods, and weekends versus weekdays. We found that highly active users prioritize sampling in biodiversity-rich locations, filling data gaps in natural green spaces and rural areas while perpetuating biases toward protected areas and parks within urban areas. In contrast, casual users tend to primarily incorporate sampling into their daily lives, filling gaps within urban neighborhoods and on non-protected land while perpetuating biases toward developed areas. Local iNaturalist users, especially casual users, were the most likely to sample in low-income census tracts compared with travelers and are important for gap-filling in these underrepresented areas. Understanding how participants with different motivations shape opportunistic biodiversity data can inform contributory project planning and downstream data use. Our results emphasize the importance of recruiting new participants, retaining current participants, and engaging locals in contributory science programs. Further efforts to derive insight from opportunistic biodiversity data may benefit from accounting for variation in motivations of participants and resulting heterogeneity in biases across space and time.
This study evaluates the consistency and validity of the data generated by the citizen science program Observando os Rios (OoR), coordinated by the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation and active in 17 Brazilian states. Water quality index (WQI) results produced by OoR were compared with those of São Paulo’s environmental agency, Companhia Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo (CETESB), across three hydrographic mesobasins—Alto Tietê, Sorocaba/Médio Tietê, and Piracicaba–Capivari–Jundiaí (PCJ)—from 2002 to 2023. Methodological conversions were applied to harmonize OoR classifications with CETESB standards. Among them, the weighted model (OoR_CET_8*), which adjusts both parameter inclusion and weighting, showed the closest quantitative alignment with CETESB according to Welch’s t-tests. Exact agreement between OoR and CETESB classifications varied—90% in Alto Tietê, 10% in Sorocaba/Médio Tietê, and 65% in PCJ—while ±1-category agreement exceeded 95% in all regions, indicating strong qualitative coherence. Kappa coefficients confirmed substantial agreement in Alto Tietê (0.74), moderate agreement in Sorocaba/Médio Tietê (0.51), and moderate to substantial agreement in PCJ (0.58). Along the Tietê River, finer-scale analyses revealed marked spatial variability, with an average Kappa of 0.43 and reduced convergence in highly urbanized stretches such as Guarulhos and São Paulo, where OoR frequently assigned as “Regular” while CETESB classified the same sites as “Poor” or “Terrible.” This discrepancy reflects the broader amplitude of the Regular category in the OoR index (~32% of the scale), which can smooth short-term deterioration. Despite limitations associated with biological indicators and observer-dependent variability, OoR demonstrated robustness, broad spatial coverage, and strong socio-environmental relevance. With continued methodological refinement and deeper institutional integration, the program constitutes a scalable and replicable model for citizen-science-based water quality monitoring, particularly valuable in regions with limited governmental oversight.
Volunteer biological recording generates valuable data for developing ecological understanding and informing environmental decision making. For volunteers, it offers the chance to build knowledge and skills, connect with nature and each other, and enhance wellbeing. As with other forms of citizen science there are demographic biases, with current participants being predominantly white, well-educated, older and more affluent. Increasing inclusivity is important for equitable distribution of environmental and social benefits. Questions remain, however, about how best to engage demographic groups that are currently underrepresented. In June 2024, eight organisations responsible for running biological recording schemes in the United Kingdom (UK) took part in a workshop to share hitherto implemented actions to increase inclusivity and discuss future priorities. Progress to date includes equality, diversity, and inclusivity investment and planning at an institutional level; surveys and focus groups to understand demographics and motivations of participants; accessibility reviews of training, written materials and equipment; and the creation of varied volunteer roles appealing to different skill levels and interests. Engagement with underrepresented groups at a local level has been particularly effective where investment in building relationships with communities has been possible. Future priorities include further understanding motivations for and barriers to participation as well as investigating opportunities for more fundamental changes, such as those offered by new technologies, that could make biological recording more inclusive. Understanding and overcoming barriers and challenges within organisations and the existing recording community and collaboration to tackle the issues identified is needed to make change happen.
Web-accessible biodiversity databases accept and openly share species observations from the public, which benefits research, conservation, and education. However, public data sharing can also bring harm, for example by facilitating poaching. Databases may mitigate potential harms associated with data sharing by designating certain species as “sensitive” and restricting access to those species data. Herein, we explore how databases explain those restrictions through rationales. We analyzed rationale communication in 43 biodiversity databases that automatically restrict access to certain participatory science species data. We found a small set of commonly used rationales, wide variation in the number of rationales provided, and a surprising number of databases citing few rationales. We distinguish between general theme rationales that can apply to many species and specific theme rationales that apply to fewer species, and between low- and high-context rationales. Most databases provided general theme rationales at the database level, and a smaller group provided rationales (general or specific theme) unique to each species. Most databases explained restrictions in formal policies, but some did not. We discuss implications of rationale communication for data accessibility, risk management, and informed participation in participatory science, and link our findings to ongoing metadata standardization efforts. We suggest seven best practices for data restriction communication that account for differences in project values, obligations, and resources. Our primary recommendations are that databases provide rationales for data restrictions, ideally unique to each species, and make these rationales publicly accessible and easy to locate when doing so does not increase threats.
The benefits of participatory science (PS) engagement for participants are not equally distributed. Currently, people who identify as white, highly educated, and wealthy largely constitute contributory PS projects, and little is known about what motivates or impedes participation of people from underrepresented groups. We investigated how Project FeederWatch (PFW), a PS project focused on people who feed and watch birds, could be made more inclusive for people identifying as 1) Black, Indigenous, or a person of color and/or 2) disabled and/or neurodivergent using focus groups of people who already feed birds but do not currently participate in PFW. We explored how PFW could better align with people’s existing interests and address perceived systemic barriers to participation. The motivations and barriers that attendees identified reflected their associations with PS as a whole. Attendees indicated that PFW already matched their interests and had several accessible aspects. However, attendees noted substantial systemic barriers to participation, including the participation fee, economic barriers, accessibility barriers, and a pervasive lack of belonging. Attendees suggested that PFW could be more inclusive by addressing these barriers, improving accessibility, and further supporting participant interests. Based on our research, we share recommendations for designing both inclusive focus groups and inclusive PS projects. These findings have relevance for other projects seeking to distribute the benefits of PS to all.
Citizen science (CS) has gained recognition as a useful tool for monitoring and facilitating sustainable development transitions. However, CS initiatives are only emerging in the Global South, leaving many unknowns, like the factors influencing participation. This article contributes to the literature by examining the factors driving and limiting participation in two CS networks established in Uganda: Action Towards Reducing Aquatic Parasitic diseases (ATRAP), which monitored freshwater snails; and the Geo-observer (GO), which monitored natural hazards. Building on the theory of planned behaviour and the volunteer functions inventory, a questionnaire was administered to the participating individuals or citizen scientists and a control group that consisted of candidate citizen scientists, through group and individual interview settings. Motivations for participation were strikingly similar across the CS networks, respondent groups, and interview settings. The main drivers for participation were the desire to gain new skills and knowledge (understanding) and contribute to the community’s well-being (values), while the influence of others (social) and opinions or expectations of significant others (subjective norms) played lesser roles. Although the control group in both networks consistently expressed higher levels of positive responses, the importance of the motivational factors generally declined in both respondent groups over time. Financial compensation and favorable working conditions, like flexibility, contributed to sustained participation among the citizen scientists, while the major barriers to participation embodied external and internal factors, like bad weather and sickness. This study provides valuable insights to guide future CS recruitment initiatives toward alignment with the aspirations of individuals in similar contexts.
In addition to relevant and reliable data, sustainability governance depends on the ability of the data to foster shared understanding. Drawing on critical data studies, this study investigates the process of sensemaking embedded in the data practises of digital citizen science (CS), focusing on the Finnish platform Lake-Sea Wiki. Originally developed in response to citizen initiatives and maintained by a research institute responsible for official national water monitoring, the platform integrates data on water bodies from both citizen observers and authorities. Through qualitative analysis of two surveys and a workshop for citizen observers and water monitoring experts, as well as media content and collaborative observations, the study investigates how actors involved in water monitoring perceive the meanings and usability of CS and the data it produces. The results indicate that the case information system fosters communication among actors, but mostly indirectly, limiting the development of shared understanding. A central inconsistency in sensemaking lies in experts perceiving CS producing more valuable information when citizens are solely involved as observers, whereas active citizen observers emphasise the value of more engaged forms of collaboration, allowing their knowledge of data practises to be utilised. Furthermore, while significant sources of motivation for citizen observers are internal factors, such as benefitting scientific understanding and environmental decision-making, experts rely on external means of motivation. This study highlights the need for transparent, inclusive, and context-sensitive formulation of data practises to enhance the quality, usability, and actionability of CS.
