Citizen Science
Definition: Citizen science refers to projects that actively involve the general public in the scientific endeavour, with the goal of democratizing science. Citizen scientists can be involved in all stages of research, acting as collaborators, contributors or project leaders. An example of a major citizen science project involved individuals identifying astronomical bodies (Lintott, 2008).
Related terms: Crowd science, Crowdsourcing **Alternative definition:** (if applicable) In the past, citizen science mostly referred to volunteers who participate as field assistants in scientific studies (Cohn, 2008, p. 193).
References:
- Cohn, J. P. (2008). Citizen science: Can volunteers do real research? BioScience, 58(3), 192–197. https://doi.org/10.1641/B580303
- Lintott, C. J., Schawinski, K., Slosar, A., Land, K., Bamford, S., Thomas, D., & Vandenberg, J. (2008). Galaxy Zoo: morphologies derived from visual inspection of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 389(3), 1179–1189. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13689.x
Originally drafted by: Mahmoud Elsherif; Ana Barbosa Mendes
Reviewed by: Gisela H. Govaart, Tamara Kalandadze, Dominik Kiersz, Charlotte R. Pennington, Robert M. Ross