Open AccessCitizen Science as an Ecosystem of Engagement: Implications for Learning and Broadening Participation
Author(s) -
Bradley C. Allf,
Caren B. Cooper,
Lincoln R. Larson,
Robert R. Dunn,
Sara Futch,
Maria Sharova,
Darlene Cavalier
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
bioscience/bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.761
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1525-3244
pISSN - 0006-3568
DOI - 10.1093/biosci/biac035
Subject(s) - citizen science , norm (philosophy) , discipline , population , public engagement , mode (computer interface) , sociology , public relations , psychology , computer science , political science , social science , botany , demography , law , biology , operating system
The bulk of research on citizen science participants is project centric, based on an assumption that volunteers experience a single project. Contrary to this assumption, survey responses ( n = 3894) and digital trace data ( n = 3649) from volunteers, who collectively engaged in 1126 unique projects, revealed that multiproject participation was the norm. Only 23% of volunteers were singletons (who participated in only one project). The remaining multiproject participants were split evenly between discipline specialists (39%) and discipline spanners (38% joined projects with different disciplinary topics) and unevenly between mode specialists (52%) and mode spanners (25% participated in online and offline projects). Public engagement was narrow: The multiproject participants were eight times more likely to be White and five times more likely to hold advanced degrees than the general population. We propose a volunteer-centric framework that explores how the dynamic accumulation of experiences in a project ecosystem can support broad learning objectives and inclusive citizen science.