Citizen science needs a name change.

Amidst attention towards improving equality, inclusivity, and diversity, citizen science is woefully anachronistic in its name. There is a critical need for this field to distance itself from the exclusionary nature of the term 'citizen'. We provide reasoning for abandoning this term and an outline for adopting a new name.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Trends in Ecology & Evolution

• Publication date

  2023-04-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Philosophy, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.tree.2023.03.003PMID 37088666
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• North and South: Naming practices and the hidden dimension of global disparities in knowledge production

  2022cited by this paper
• Tracking Science: An Alternative for Those Excluded by Citizen Science

  2021cited by this paper
• Expanding the Impact of Citizen Science

  2021cited by this paper
• Inclusion in citizen science: The conundrum of rebranding

  2021cited by this paper
• Community science: A typology and its implications for governance of social-ecological systems

  2020cited by this paper
• Monitoring the world's bird populations with community science data

  2020cited by this paper
• The problem with delineating narrow criteria for citizen science

  2019cited by this paper
• Opinion: Toward an international definition of citizen science

  2019cited by this paper
• Reply to Auerbach et al.: How our Opinion piece invites collaboration

  2019cited by this paper
• Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms

  2017cited by this paper
• Public Participation in Scientific Research: a Framework for Deliberate Design

  2012cited by this paper
• The history of public participation in ecological research

  2012cited by this paper
• Citizen Science: A Developing Tool for Expanding Science Knowledge and Scientific Literacy

  2009cited by this paper

• Temporal analysis of reproduction distributed in space illuminates the climate-change resiliency of toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)

  2026cites this paper
• HUMETAV model for citizen science initiatives: designing socio-ecological projects to foster awareness

  2025cites this paper
• A comparison of participatory science seining and electrofishing for sampling fish assemblages in an urban river

  2025cites this paper
• Flotation vs. Floatation: Terminology Related to Methods for Aging Gamebird Eggs

  2025cites this paper
• Are you ready for it? Harnessing celebrity influence for science communication and seismology – The Taylor Swift effect

  2025cites this paper
• Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science.

  2025cites this paper
• Reliability of low-cost colorimetric phosphate and nitrate tests used by citizen scientists to assess river water quality

  2025cites this paper
• ‘To touch is to know': haptic inquiry for primary school citizen science

  2025cites this paper
• Contrasting Seasonal Distribution Patterns of Two Boreal Aerial Hawking Bat Species in Finland

  2025cites this paper
• Co-creation in citizen science: sharing learnings and good practice from an indoor, airborne microplastics project

  2025cites this paper
• Does Terminology Matter? Effects of the Citizen Science Label on Participation in a Wildlife Conservation Online Platform

  2025cites this paper
• Biodiversity futures: digital approaches to knowledge and conservation of biological diversity

  2025cites this paper
• Community scientists provide knowledge and public education and help enforce environmental regulations in social-ecological systems

  2025cites this paper
• Community science and the value-free ideal

  2025influential citation
• Hitchhikers and anglers: novel ectosymbioses and predatory interactions with carybdeid box jellyfishes (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Carybdeida) confirmed by citizen science and digital morphological analyses

  2025cites this paper
• Effects of anthropogenic noise on marine mammal abundances informed by mixed methods

  2025cites this paper
• OVERGROWN BILL IN A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD (MIMUS POLYGLOTTOS) FROM WEST TEXAS, WITH A REVIEW OF BILL DEFORMITIES IN THE GENUS MIMUS

  2024cites this paper
• Taming the terminological tempest in invasion science

  2024cites this paper
• Reimagining the language of engagement in a post-stakeholder world

  2024cites this paper
• Participatory science methods to monitor water quality and ground truth remote sensing of the Chesapeake Bay

  2024cites this paper
• Online toolkits for collaborative and inclusive global research in urban evolutionary ecology

  2024cites this paper
• Reconstructing 120 years of climate change impacts on Joshua tree flowering.

  2024cites this paper
• From spectators to stewards: Transforming public involvement in natural history collections

  2024cites this paper
• Embracing inclusivity: the case against the term 'citizen science'

  2024cites this paper
• Embedding citizens within airborne microplastic and microfibre research

  2023cites this paper
• Community and citizen science in schools: nested inquiries, productive tensions, and the role of communities

  2023cites this paper
• Beyond the usual suspects: using cross-sectoral partnerships to target and engage new citizen scientists

  2023cites this paper
• Diversifying Large-Scale Participatory Science: The Efficacy of Engagement through Facilitator Organizations

  2023cites this paper
• Interrogating illusions of progress: citizen science, science communication, and a call for inclusive reform

  2023cites this paper
• Bridging citizen science and science communication: insights from a global study of science communicators

  2023cites this paper
• The Caddisfly Collective: Methods of assessing Trichoptera diversity on a continental scale with community scientists

  2023cites this paper
• The Caddisfly Collective: Methods of assessing Trichoptera diversity on a continental scale with community scientists *

  year unknowncites this paper
• A new participatory conservation framework built on the rise of native plant gardening

  year unknowncites this paper