A brief introduction on motivations of Citizen Scientists and few ideas how to address them

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Knowing your Citizen
Scientists
Input on Motivations, Interests and Needs and
how to manage them
ilse Marschalek, ZSI

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“The purpose, hence, is matching science with specific
societal motivations and needs. In doing so, we fight
against science misconceptions and fake news.”
Newsera Deliverable 5.5 Re-thinking Science Communication:
Take-away Ideas for Citizen Science Initiatives, p 12

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Source: Communication in
Citizen Science – a practical
guide to communication and
engagement in citizen
science; Scivil, 2019

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 Understanding the motivations of volunteers can enhance
recruitment, ensure good retention rates and ultimately make the
citizen science project a success
 Motivations are different!
 Participants are not a homogenous group
 Wide variety of different reasons why they participate
 Motivations and reasons can change over time!
 create tasks that appeal different motivations
Motivations

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 Different participants require different levels and methods of support
 Needs to be tailored to the individual
 „Volunteer Role Identity“: extent to which individuals identify with their role and
becomes part of their self-concept
Furthermore:
 Impact of personal circumstances
 Previous experiences
 Personal factors, personal life
 etc.
 flexibilty, offering different roles/task and levels of participation
 allow to switch between them based on their motivations, knowledge, needs and
resources
Working with individuals

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Inclusiveness, Diversity
 Make sure to engage with diverse citizens so they are as representative as
possible of society.
 Identify associations and institutions that may give you access to a good
number of citizens underrepresented (e.g. Youth organizations, women
associations, minority representative groups).
How to build an inclusive project
Webiniar ACTION project: https://youtu.be/CC4Iwqn-6Tk
minute 19

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Motivations
 Intrinsic Motivations
◦ Understanding
 Wanting to learn new things, to share existing knowledge with others
◦ Values
 Helping other people, science, the environemnt, or a particular site or community
◦ Social (e.g. meeting people)
◦ Enhancement (improving themselves)
◦ Protective (address personal problems)
 Extrinsic Motivations
◦ Career

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https://www.the-ies.org/analysis/motivations-volunteers-citizen
A wish to contribute to science, a drive
that is unique to citizen science
Altruistic motives, such as volunteering
for a cause or feeling it is important to
help
Environmental citizen science projects
are often altruistically motivated because
they are concerned about the
environment

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Source: Vohland et
al, 2021, p 249

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Nov, O., Arazy, O., Anderson, D. (2011). “Dusting for science: motivation
and participation of digital
citizen science volunteers”. Proceedings of the 2011 iConference:
Inspiration, Integrity and Intrepidity, 68–74.

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 Personality traits, beliefs etc., age, income, education, employment
status etc.
 different opportunities to participate
 Amount of time to offer
 also offer tasks which require small time committments
 Different skills and abilities
 offer e.g. non physical tasks for disabled people
 make different participants visible
Personal attributes, demographics

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Helpful Questions
 What is the participants’ primary interest in the topic
 To what degree is the participant relevant
 To what degree is the participant engaged in the activity
 Does this participant oppose or support process in the specific field
 Will the engagement activity directly benefit or possibly harm the
participant
 What alliances exist with other participants
 What conflicts exist with other participants
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Lack of information on opportunitiy to participate
Lack of understanding of WHAT the activity involves
 Find advocates of the project
 Use word of mouth
 Promote through organisations and gatekeepers
 Team up with already existing groups, associations, aggregative centers (e.g. youth centers, scouts)
 Use broker (e.g. educational establishments)
 Coordinate with already existing educational paths or other volunteering organizations
 Media convergence (Press releases, radio, TV, Social media….), poster, leaflets in key locations)
 Highlighting diverse benefits
 Provide short „vignettes“ for profiling diverse motivations
 Make clear what participation involves, nature and time of acitvities
 Show experiences through collection of video testimonies of citizens already involved / photo reportage
Awareness of opportunity

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 Good project organisation is key!
 Create an atmosphere of trust and support
 Well-organised project with good leadership and clear expectations and meaningful
tasks
 Participants have to have a „job satisfaction“ to continue
 They will keep coming if their needs are fulfilled
 Match the right person to the right role/task
 Emphasise the social aspect, provide networking and mutual learning, including online
forums
 Create exchange meetings where every citizen can intervene bringing their thematic
needs and concerns
 Making a citizen science initiative an enjoyable and meaningful experience
Sustained participation - Retention

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Monitoring and Research
 Incorporate research to understand (changing) motivations into the design monitoring
and evaluation plan! Assess whether needs of participants are met
 Use these results/insights to refine and adapt
 Find out the benefits to the individuals
 Participants want to feel that their time is well spent
Impact/results of the project should be monitored and communicated
• e.g. a regular newsletter, or website include research findings, provide visualisation
tools
 Get regular feedback from citizens scientists
 Use ex post evaluation to measure the effects of a project

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 Rewarding participants for their work („Citizen scientist of the month“)
 Showing them they are valued, thanking people
 Making them visible (eg: https://ymcb.eu/2021/02/18/azra-bekic/)
 Award schemes
 Social events
 Providing incentives (tombola, etc)
 Offer involvement in processes (decision making, project organisation)
 Formal Recognition, Accreditation
 Providing evidence of improved skills and personal development
 BUT avoid being overly bureaucratic, eg written examinations etc
 Consider not all want to be „developed“
Recognition and Acknowledgement

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 Introduce any new staff, list training opportunities
 Providing a sense of community
 Providing opportunities for participants to interact with each other
 Answer queries
 Continuous feedback
 Establish a schedule of updating moments
 Dissemination
 Citizens can be involved directly in public events to increase participation to follow-up
events and further promote new volunteers enrolment
Recognition and Acknowledgement II

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Further ideas for rewards
 Banquet, Thank you event
 Throw A Pizza Party (Local or international)
 Luncheons, delivered food
 Gifts (like Personalized mug, flowers, plants)
 Gift baskets or gift cards to volunteers’ favorite restaurants or stores
 Discounts at local shops or Pay It Forward (Cover the registration fee or part of the cost of a
professional development course, activity, or conference fee)
 Create a volunteer Yearbook (Recognition of YCSSs on YouCount website)
 Provide business discounts (for related shops/products)
 Certificates or acknowledgment from the mayor’s office
 Establishing volunteer feedback surveys to glean insights and ideas
 Nomination for awards
 Invites onto Advisory Boards
 Mentorship opportunity (e.g: https://ymcb.eu/category/mentor/)

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Sources:
Newsera Deliverable 5.5 Re-thinking Science Communication: Take-away Ideas for Citizen Science Initiatives, p 13 ff
StepChange D 1.1 Scoping Tools and Support Materials, pp 77, 82
Socientize Consortium. (2014). White Paper on Citizen Science: Citizen Science for Europe, Towards a better society of
empowered citizens and enhanced research. [Deliverable]. Socientize project.
http://www.socientize.eu/sites/default/files/white-paper_0.pdf
The motivations of volunteers in citizen science, (2016) | https://www.the-ies.org/analysis/motivations-volunteers-citizen
Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perelló, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R., & Wagenknecht, K. (Eds.).
(2021). The science of citizen science. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4
West, S and Pateman, R 2016 Recruiting and Retaining Participants in Citizen Science: What Can Be Learned from the
Volunteering Literature? Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 1(2): 15, pp. 1–10, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.8
Online sources:
https://citizensciencetoolkit.eu/
Webiniar on motivation by ACTION project: https://youtu.be/QTp49V3lMVM
https://blogs.volunteermatch.org/7-reward-systems-for recognizing-your-volunteers
https://www.volgistics.com/blog/reward-your-volunteers/

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This project has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme
under grant agreement No 101006386