The book is addressed to the international citizen science community, including scholars, practitioners and especially universities.
The Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) has contributed to the book “The Science of Citizen Science”, which is addressed to the international citizen science community -scholars, practitioners and especially universities- and brings together the most relevant strengths and barriers to meeting the many expectations of citizen science.
The work includes contributions from more than 100 authors from 24 countries about the role of citizen science in the natural, cultural and social sciences; the social implications and design of cooperation between paid and voluntary professional researchers; and the methods currently used for data collection and validation.
“This book signals a beginning, as its curriculum-like structure gives universities and others the opportunity to reflect on both the substantive contributions to research and the societal added value of citizen science. In addition, it offers practical support for implementing projects, and also addresses emerging topics such as citizen science and artificial intelligence”, says Katrin Vohland, Director General of the Natural History Museum Vienna and first editor of the book.
The authors include the ICM researcher and Cos4Cloud coordinator Jaume Piera, who has recently joined the Executive Board of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). The ICM researcher participated in the drafting of a chapter called "A Conceptual Model for Participants and Activities in Citizen Science Projects", which explains
“The book, and particularly this chapter, provides a common understanding and representation of citizen science projects, their participants, and their outcomes, which it is key to enabling seamless knowledge and citizen science data sharing”, explains Jaume Piera.
Jaume’s interests in citizen science focus on improving the technologies and infrastructures that facilitate citizen science development. This is the main objective of Cos4Cloud, now immersed in connecting European citizen observatories with the European Open Science Cloud.
The result of an intensive exchange
“The Science of Citizen Science” is a culmination of four years of intensive exchange within a European research network on citizen science. During this period, scientists, practitioners and representatives of several organizations have discussed various issues related to citizen science, such as the data quality and the involvement of citizens, the ontologies of citizen science, so that international platforms can better exchange and use synergies, and different educational aspects.
Finally, questions such as how citizen science can contribute to environmental monitoring or societal transformation were also addressed to give bird to a book that, according to its authors, should also make it easier for academia to adopt individual aspects of citizen science into their curricula, or even establish courses or professorships focused on citizen science.