What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective
- Autores
- Unterfrauner, Elisabeth; Fabian, Claudia Magdalena; Hemming, Gary; Garcia, Beatriz Elena
- Año de publicación
- 2024
- Idioma
- inglés
- Tipo de recurso
- artículo
- Estado
- versión publicada
- Descripción
- Citizen science projects optimise the democratisation of the production of scientific knowledge. In these initiatives, research processes do not rely solely on scientists’ but on citizens’ engagement likewise with benefits on both sides. As previous work shows, the democratisation perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while other are left out. This paper explores the claim of democratisation and the citizens’ benefits based on four citizen science projects in the fields of astrophysics and particle physics on the citizen science platform Zooniverse. Besides a general engagement strategy, the citizen science projects addressed two groups specifically, the elderly and people with visual impairments. The claim for democratisation is reflected in the analysis of citizens’ demographic variables as an indicator for accessibility of the research projects. We used a pre-post design with questionnaires on science attitudes, motivations, skills, self-efficacy, and knowledge to assess what citizen scientists gained from participating in the project. The demographic analysis of the data reveals that participants were quite heterogeneous and that people who feel that they belong to a group that is discriminated against are particularly motivated to participate in citizen science projects. In terms of benefits, the results indicate knowledge and scientific skills gains, but no changes on other evaluative dimensions. Their attitude towards science was, in general, already rather positive when joining the projects, thus not leaving much room for change. These results confirm the importance of and call for a diversified citizen science engagement strategy and show that even in citizen science projects where the citizens’ task is limited to classifying data lead to scientific knowledge and skills gains.
Fil: Unterfrauner, Elisabeth. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; Austria
Fil: Fabian, Claudia Magdalena. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; Austria
Fil: Hemming, Gary. European Gravitational Wave Observatory; Italia
Fil: Garcia, Beatriz Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina - Materia
-
CITIZEN SCIENCES
DEMOCRATIZATION OF SCIENCE
REINFORCE PROJECT
SOCIAL INNOVATION - Nivel de accesibilidad
- acceso abierto
- Condiciones de uso
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar/
- Repositorio
- Institución
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
- OAI Identificador
- oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/259019
Ver los metadatos del registro completo
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What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspectiveUnterfrauner, ElisabethFabian, Claudia MagdalenaHemming, GaryGarcia, Beatriz ElenaCITIZEN SCIENCESDEMOCRATIZATION OF SCIENCEREINFORCE PROJECTSOCIAL INNOVATIONhttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1Citizen science projects optimise the democratisation of the production of scientific knowledge. In these initiatives, research processes do not rely solely on scientists’ but on citizens’ engagement likewise with benefits on both sides. As previous work shows, the democratisation perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while other are left out. This paper explores the claim of democratisation and the citizens’ benefits based on four citizen science projects in the fields of astrophysics and particle physics on the citizen science platform Zooniverse. Besides a general engagement strategy, the citizen science projects addressed two groups specifically, the elderly and people with visual impairments. The claim for democratisation is reflected in the analysis of citizens’ demographic variables as an indicator for accessibility of the research projects. We used a pre-post design with questionnaires on science attitudes, motivations, skills, self-efficacy, and knowledge to assess what citizen scientists gained from participating in the project. The demographic analysis of the data reveals that participants were quite heterogeneous and that people who feel that they belong to a group that is discriminated against are particularly motivated to participate in citizen science projects. In terms of benefits, the results indicate knowledge and scientific skills gains, but no changes on other evaluative dimensions. Their attitude towards science was, in general, already rather positive when joining the projects, thus not leaving much room for change. These results confirm the importance of and call for a diversified citizen science engagement strategy and show that even in citizen science projects where the citizens’ task is limited to classifying data lead to scientific knowledge and skills gains.Fil: Unterfrauner, Elisabeth. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; AustriaFil: Fabian, Claudia Magdalena. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; AustriaFil: Hemming, Gary. European Gravitational Wave Observatory; ItaliaFil: Garcia, Beatriz Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaF1000 Research2024-06info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/259019Unterfrauner, Elisabeth; Fabian, Claudia Magdalena; Hemming, Gary; Garcia, Beatriz Elena; What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective; F1000 Research; Open Research Europe; 4; 6-2024; 1-182732-5121CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-124/v1info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.12688/openreseurope.17436.1info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-29T09:43:36Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/259019instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-29 09:43:36.801CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
title |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
spellingShingle |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective Unterfrauner, Elisabeth CITIZEN SCIENCES DEMOCRATIZATION OF SCIENCE REINFORCE PROJECT SOCIAL INNOVATION |
title_short |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
title_full |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
title_fullStr |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
title_full_unstemmed |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
title_sort |
What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective |
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Unterfrauner, Elisabeth Fabian, Claudia Magdalena Hemming, Gary Garcia, Beatriz Elena |
author |
Unterfrauner, Elisabeth |
author_facet |
Unterfrauner, Elisabeth Fabian, Claudia Magdalena Hemming, Gary Garcia, Beatriz Elena |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Fabian, Claudia Magdalena Hemming, Gary Garcia, Beatriz Elena |
author2_role |
author author author |
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
CITIZEN SCIENCES DEMOCRATIZATION OF SCIENCE REINFORCE PROJECT SOCIAL INNOVATION |
topic |
CITIZEN SCIENCES DEMOCRATIZATION OF SCIENCE REINFORCE PROJECT SOCIAL INNOVATION |
purl_subject.fl_str_mv |
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3 https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1 |
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv |
Citizen science projects optimise the democratisation of the production of scientific knowledge. In these initiatives, research processes do not rely solely on scientists’ but on citizens’ engagement likewise with benefits on both sides. As previous work shows, the democratisation perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while other are left out. This paper explores the claim of democratisation and the citizens’ benefits based on four citizen science projects in the fields of astrophysics and particle physics on the citizen science platform Zooniverse. Besides a general engagement strategy, the citizen science projects addressed two groups specifically, the elderly and people with visual impairments. The claim for democratisation is reflected in the analysis of citizens’ demographic variables as an indicator for accessibility of the research projects. We used a pre-post design with questionnaires on science attitudes, motivations, skills, self-efficacy, and knowledge to assess what citizen scientists gained from participating in the project. The demographic analysis of the data reveals that participants were quite heterogeneous and that people who feel that they belong to a group that is discriminated against are particularly motivated to participate in citizen science projects. In terms of benefits, the results indicate knowledge and scientific skills gains, but no changes on other evaluative dimensions. Their attitude towards science was, in general, already rather positive when joining the projects, thus not leaving much room for change. These results confirm the importance of and call for a diversified citizen science engagement strategy and show that even in citizen science projects where the citizens’ task is limited to classifying data lead to scientific knowledge and skills gains. Fil: Unterfrauner, Elisabeth. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; Austria Fil: Fabian, Claudia Magdalena. Zentrum Fur Soziale Innovation; Austria Fil: Hemming, Gary. European Gravitational Wave Observatory; Italia Fil: Garcia, Beatriz Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina |
description |
Citizen science projects optimise the democratisation of the production of scientific knowledge. In these initiatives, research processes do not rely solely on scientists’ but on citizens’ engagement likewise with benefits on both sides. As previous work shows, the democratisation perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while other are left out. This paper explores the claim of democratisation and the citizens’ benefits based on four citizen science projects in the fields of astrophysics and particle physics on the citizen science platform Zooniverse. Besides a general engagement strategy, the citizen science projects addressed two groups specifically, the elderly and people with visual impairments. The claim for democratisation is reflected in the analysis of citizens’ demographic variables as an indicator for accessibility of the research projects. We used a pre-post design with questionnaires on science attitudes, motivations, skills, self-efficacy, and knowledge to assess what citizen scientists gained from participating in the project. The demographic analysis of the data reveals that participants were quite heterogeneous and that people who feel that they belong to a group that is discriminated against are particularly motivated to participate in citizen science projects. In terms of benefits, the results indicate knowledge and scientific skills gains, but no changes on other evaluative dimensions. Their attitude towards science was, in general, already rather positive when joining the projects, thus not leaving much room for change. These results confirm the importance of and call for a diversified citizen science engagement strategy and show that even in citizen science projects where the citizens’ task is limited to classifying data lead to scientific knowledge and skills gains. |
publishDate |
2024 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2024-06 |
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/11336/259019 Unterfrauner, Elisabeth; Fabian, Claudia Magdalena; Hemming, Gary; Garcia, Beatriz Elena; What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective; F1000 Research; Open Research Europe; 4; 6-2024; 1-18 2732-5121 CONICET Digital CONICET |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11336/259019 |
identifier_str_mv |
Unterfrauner, Elisabeth; Fabian, Claudia Magdalena; Hemming, Gary; Garcia, Beatriz Elena; What’s in it for citizen scientists?: An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective; F1000 Research; Open Research Europe; 4; 6-2024; 1-18 2732-5121 CONICET Digital CONICET |
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-124/v1 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.12688/openreseurope.17436.1 |
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar/ |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar/ |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
F1000 Research |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
F1000 Research |
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reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET) instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
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CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
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CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
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Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
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CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
dasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.ar |
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13.070432 |