Process, Not Product: Investigating Recommendations for Improving Citizen Science “Success”

Citizen science programs are increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, from public education to new opportunities for data collection. The literature published in scientific journals resulting from these projects represents a particular perspective on the process. These articles often conclude with recommendations for increasing “success”. This study compared these recommendations to those elicited during interviews with program coordinators for programs within the United States. From this comparison, success cannot be unilaterally defined and therefore recommendations vary by perspective on success. Program coordinators tended to have more locally-tailored recommendations specific to particular aspects of their program mission.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  PLoS ONE

• Publication date

  2013-05-15

• Fields of study

  Biology, Sociology, Medicine, Education

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0064079PMID 23691154PMCID 3655009
• 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.

• Citizen Science as an Ecological Research Tool: Challenges and Benefits

  2010cited by this paper
• Research, part of a Special Feature on Realizing Water Transitions: The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Water Policy Change Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions around the Globe

  2010cited by this paper
• Water transitions, policy entrepreneurs and change strategies: lessons learned

  2009cited by this paper
• A new dawn for citizen science.

  2009cited by this paper
• Collaborative networks and new ways of knowing

  2009cited by this paper
• Water policy entrepreneurs : a research companion to water transitions around the globe

  2009cited by this paper
• Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research?

  2008cited by this paper
• Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor‐Network‐Theory

  2008cited by this paper
• Are there any differences? A non-sensical question in ecology

  2007cited by this paper
• Democratizing Science Movements

  2007cited by this paper
• Monitoring the distribution of pond‐breeding amphibians when species are detected imperfectly

  2005cited by this paper
• Scientific knowledge and attitude change: The impact of a citizen science project

  2005cited by this paper
• The Neighborhood Nestwatch Program: Participant Outcomes of a Citizen‐Science Ecological Research Project

  2005cited by this paper
• Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

  2005cited by this paper
• Integrating published data and citizen science to describe bird diversity across a landscape

  2005cited by this paper
• States of Knowledge: The Co-production of Science and the Social Order

  2004cited by this paper
• Can volunteers provide reliable data for forest vegetation surveys

  2003cited by this paper
• Handbook of Qualitative Research

  2002cited by this paper
• Thinking scientifically during participation in a citizen‐science project

  2000cited by this paper
• The discipline and practice of qualitative research [Introduction]. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.

  2000cited by this paper
• Citizens, Experts, and the Environment: The Politics of Local Knowledge

  2000cited by this paper
• Sacred Ecology

  1999cited by this paper
• Policy Forum Introduction: the conservation of wild living resources

  1998cited by this paper
• A Brief History of Volunteer Biological Water Monitoring Using Macroinvertebrates

  1995cited by this paper
• Handbook of Qualitative Research

  1994cited by this paper
• Public participation and volunteer help in monitoring programs: An assessment

  1990cited by this paper
• Toward a rational society: Student protest, science and politics;

  1971cited by this paper
• A SIMPLE METHOD OF MEASURING BEACH PROFILES

  1961cited by this paper

• Embracing community science to study broadscale landscape change: successes, failures, challenges, issues of sustainability, and advice

  2026cites this paper
• Using citizen science to overcome data gaps in artisanal fisheries: programme overview and spatiotemporal patterns.

  2025cites this paper
• Community (citizen) science for assessing nature's benefits: A systematic review and survey

  2025cites this paper
• Strategies for Success: Participatory Science Involvement in Water Quality Environmental Governance

  2025cites this paper
• Understanding methodological innovation in participatory research: insights from participatory EU-funded projects

  2024cites this paper
• From a citizen science programme to a coastline monitoring system: Achievements and lessons learnt from the Spanish CoastSnap network

  2024cites this paper
• A systematic literature review of K-12 environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives: Unveiling the CS pedagogical and participatory aspects contributing to students’ environmental citizenship

  2023cites this paper
• Crowdsourcing Geospatial Data for Earth and Human Observations: A Review

  2023cites this paper
• Establishing a long‐term citizen science project? Lessons learned from the Community Lake Ice Collaboration spanning over 30 yr and 1000 lakes

  2023cites this paper
• Citizen Science: Is It Good Science?

  2023cites this paper
• Wind energy and noise: Forecasting the future sounds of wind energy projects and facilitating Dutch community participation

  2023cites this paper
• Citizen science in marine litter research: A review.

  2022cites this paper
• Surveying the scope, success, and challenges of plant conservation community science

  2022influential citation
• Conservation through connection: Approaches to engaging communities in applied grizzly bear research

  2022cites this paper
• Citizen science: How to extend reciprocal benefits from the project community to the broader socio-ecological system

  2022cites this paper
• Active and healthy ageing in urban environments: laying the groundwork for solution-building through citizen science

  2022cites this paper
• Stakeholder Perspectives on the Roles of Science and Citizen Science in Chesapeake Bay Environmental Management

  2022cites this paper
• Mercury accumulation in honey bees trends upward with urbanization in the USA

  2022cites this paper
• Improving Widescale Monitoring of Ectoparasite Presence in Northern Canadian Wildlife with the Aid of Citizen Science

  2022cites this paper
• Meeting volunteer expectations — a review of volunteer motivations in citizen science and best practices for their retention through implementation of functional features in CS tools

  2021cites this paper
• Data Quality in Citizen Science

  2021cites this paper
• Methods of Promoting Learning and Data Quality in Citizen and Community Science

  2021cites this paper
• A visual technique used by citizen scientists shows higher herbivory in understory vs. canopy leaves of a tropical forest.

  2021cites this paper
• Reaching the limits of co-creation in citizen science — exemplified by the linguistic citizen humanities project ‘On everyone’s mind and lips — German in Austria’

  2021cites this paper
• The benefits and negative impacts of citizen science applications to water as experienced by participants and communities

  2020cites this paper
• Michigan ZoomIN: validating crowd-sourcing to identify mammals from camera surveys

  2020cites this paper
• Engagement and Communication Features of Scientifically Successful Citizen Science Projects

  2020cites this paper
• Reciprocal Research: Providing Value in Design Research from the Outset in the Rural United States

  2020cites this paper
• What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse

  2020cites this paper
• Developing Language Resources with Citizen Linguistics in Austria – A Case Study

  2020cites this paper
• Just-in-Time Training Improves Accuracy of Citizen Scientist Wildlife Identifications from Camera Trap Photos

  2020cites this paper
• Citizen science in ecology: a place for humans in nature

  2020cites this paper
• Learning outcomes in online citizen science communities designed for inquiry

  2020cites this paper
• Eco-Citizen Science for Social Good: Promoting Child Well-Being, Environmental Justice, and Inclusion

  2020cites this paper
• The SMART Framework: Integration of Citizen Science, Community-Based Participatory Research, and Systems Science for Population Health Science in the Digital Age

  2019cites this paper
• The design, launch and assessment of a new volunteer-based plant monitoring scheme for the United Kingdom

  2019cites this paper
• Developing a taxonomy of citizen science projects in primary school

  2019cites this paper
• A Citizen Science Approach to Determine Physical Activity Patterns and Demographics of Greenway Users in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

  2019cites this paper
• Managing a large citizen science project to monitor wildlife

  2019cites this paper
• Tracking jellyfish and leatherback sea turtle seasonality through citizen science observers

  2019cites this paper
• Citizen science and informal learning: A brief commentary

  2018cites this paper
• Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire

  2018cites this paper
• Destroying iPhones: Feral science and the antithetical citizen

  2018cites this paper
• Crowdsourcing and Massively Collaborative Science: A Systematic Literature Review and Mapping Study

  2018cites this paper
• The social fabric of citizen science—drivers for long-term engagement in the German butterfly monitoring scheme

  2018cites this paper
• Enhancing plant biosecurity with citizen science monitoring: comparing methodologies using reports of acute oak decline

  2018cites this paper
• Citizen science monitoring of marine protected areas: Case studies and recommendations for integration into monitoring programs

  2018cites this paper
• Linking Jellyfish and Leatherback Sea Turtle Distributions in Atlantic Canada

  2018cites this paper
• Peer-reviewed publishing of results from Citizen Science projects

  2018cites this paper
• Building trust among marine protected area managers and community members through scientific research: Insights from the Ningaloo Marine Park, Australia

  2018cites this paper
• Designing citizen science tools for learning : lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire Journal Item

  2018cites this paper
• Crowdsourcing as a Tool for Research: Implications of Uncertainty

  2017cites this paper
• Risk communication films: Process, product and potential for improving preparedness and behaviour change

  2017cites this paper
• Multi-Year Counts of Sea Ducks and Gulls In the Nearshore of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska

  2017cites this paper
• Introducing citizen inquiry

  2017cites this paper
• A Rubric to Evaluate Citizen‐Science Programs for Long‐Term Ecological Monitoring

  2017cites this paper
• The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

  2017cites this paper
• Novel Fibonacci and non-Fibonacci structure in the sunflower: results of a citizen science experiment

  2016cites this paper
• Learning and the transformative potential of citizen science

  2016cites this paper
• Addressing Common Student Technical Errors in Field Data Collection: An Analysis of a Citizen-Science Monitoring Project

  2016cites this paper
• A typology for strategies to connect citizen science and management

  2016cites this paper
• The I nflue nce of a Citizen Science Project: Student Att itudes, Sense of Place, and Understanding of Science Practices

  2016cites this paper
• To have your citizen science cake and eat it? Delivering research and outreach through Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)

  2016cites this paper
• Citizen Science for Mining the Biomedical Literature

  2016cites this paper
• Aligning community-based water monitoring program designs with goals for enhanced environmental management

  2016cites this paper
• Citizen Inquiry: Engaging Citizens in Online Communities of Scientific Inquiries

  2016cites this paper
• The Influence of a Citizen Science Project: Student Attitudes, Sense of Place, and Understanding of Science Practices

  2016cites this paper
• Citizen Science: A Learning Paradigm for the Smart City?

  2015cites this paper
• Open source approaches to establishing Roseobacter clade bacteria as synthetic biology chassis for biogeoengineering

  2015cites this paper
• Keys to Success: A Case Study Approach to Understanding Community-Based Water Monitoring Uptake in Governmental Decision-Making

  2015cites this paper
• Fostering Student Metacognition and Motivation in STEM through Citizen Science Programs

  2015cites this paper
• Citizen Science as a Distinct Field of Inquiry

  2015cites this paper
• Promises and Prospects of Microbiome Studies

  2015cites this paper
• Importance of Farmland in Urbanized Areas as a Landscape Component for Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) Nesting on Concrete Buildings

  2015cites this paper
• Investigation of Potentially Hazardous Particulate Matter in Homes: Designing a Particle Filtration System

  2015cites this paper
• Citizen Science: A Tool for Integrating Studies of Human and Natural Systems

  2014cites this paper
• Mapping atmospheric aerosols with a citizen science network of smartphone spectropolarimeters

  2014cites this paper
• Transforming Participatory Science into Socioecological Praxis Valuing Marginalized Environmental Knowledges in the Face of the Neoliberalization of Nature and Science

  2014cites this paper
• The Design and Evaluation of a Sensor-Based Mobile Application for Citizen Inquiry Science Investigations

  2014cites this paper
• What the research says about the use of different technologies to enhance learning

  year unknowncites this paper