List of terms

    Citizen Science

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    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

    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., et al. (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

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