Presentation from the OECD workshop on 9th April 2018, GSF-NESTI Workshop on "Reconciling Scientific Excellence and Open Science" asked the question "What do we want out of science and how can we incentivise and monitor these outputs?". The talk covers the personal experience as a researcher, the experience of participants in citizen science projects, and the institutional aspects.

1. Citizen Science: Researcher,
Participants, and Institutional
Perspectives
Muki Haklay, Extreme Citizen Science group
Department of Geography, UCL
Twitter: @mhaklay / @ucl_excites

2. • Researcher experience in participatory mapping
and citizen science
• Participants journeys and motivation
• Institutional experience
Outline

3. Chauffeurs, facilitators & technology
Aurigi, A., Batty, S., Bloomfield, D., Boott, R., Clark, J., Haklay, M., Harrison, C., Heppell, K., Moreley, J. and Thornton, C. (1999), UCL Brownfield Research Network, University
College London, London, UK, 42 pp
1998

4. 2006

5. 2007

6. 2008
Noise Mapping

7. 2009

9. Participatory Software design

10. Data collection

11. Towards Intelligent Maps

12. Monitoring poaching

13. Mapping for Change
▪ Social enterprise based at UCL; founded in 2008; built on over a
decade worth of experience from its founding organisations.
▪ Promotes and supports community-based initiatives towards
building more sustainable communities, by using of
participatory mapping, geospatial
technologies and citizen science.
▪ Setting up took an effort to secure
support from sympathetic senior
management (e.g. by securing social
enterprise funding for research)

14. • Perceived as public
engagement and not
part of research –
limited funding
• Submission in
Institutional “Impact”
cases – additional load
Reporting impact

16. PARTICIPANTS EXPERIENCE

17. 64M UK population
8.5M BBC Attenborough & the Giant Dinosaur
520,000 in RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
40,000 in British Trust of Ornithology surveys
500 in BioHacking & DIY Science
60,000 in Oxford ClimatePrediction.net
UK Engagement Escalator

18. Everyone
Consumption of science (passive/active)
Opportunistic or highly limited participation
Data collection and analysis
High engagement in DIY science
Joining volunteer computing or thinking
7 Levels of Engagement

19. Citizen
Science
Awareness to
environmental
or scientific
issue
Producing
scientific
outputs
Achieving
temporal and
geographical
coverage
Achieving
inclusiveness
Increasing
scientific
literacy
Accessing
resources
Creating
enjoyable &
engaging
experiences
Balancing Citizen Science goals
• Each citizen science
project is a balancing act
between the scientific
goals, scale and depth of
engagement, benefits to
different stakeholders
(scientists, participants,
project funders)

20. 1. Task/game mechanics
2. Pattern recognition
3. On topic learning
5. Off topic knowledge
and skills
4. Scientific process
6. Personal development
Participation
as volunteer
Source: Laure Kloetzer, University of Geneva

21. Regalado. (2017) Unwrapping DIY enquiry: The study of ‘enquiry’ in DIY practice at individual, community & place levels, PhD Thesis UCL

22. General interest in popular science
Science blog reader + Galaxy Zoo classifier
Galaxy Zoo forum moderator
Community manager ExCiteS
Citizen science research
Galaxy Zoo / citizen science ambassador
...as well as Alice’s journey

23. Source: Mapping for ChangeEveryAware website at http://www.everyaware.eu
Participatory Sensing

25. Widely distributed press release
targeted at politicians and media
Follow-up with Wandsworth Council,
TfL and Mayor’s Office
Key achievement: persuading TfL to
introduce hybrid and retrofitted buses
Putney: Air Quality
Monitoring outcome

26. Participants aspects
• Multiple goals for participation
• Participation inequality and the type of
transformation is challenging (not unicorns, both
also not mass change)
• Funding and issue for participants too

27. INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS

28. • Participants are well educated &
contribution to science is known
motivator
• They provide free labour and/or
resources, and many want to see
outputs used openly
• Open access publications are
necessary
• Participants can also analyse the
data and might have their own
analysis, visualisations and
conclusions.
Citizen Science & Open Science

29. • Open Science and Citizen Science should be jointly
considered in research and innovation.
• Pay attention to synergies, international aspects. Ensure
support for existing community-driven initiatives.
• Targeted actions are required. Existing systems
(funding, rewards, impact assessment and
evaluation) need to be assessed and adapted to
become fit for CS and OS.
• Education and training is essential. Foster more
research, critical reflection and exchange between
researchers and practitioners.
• Tools and infrastructures, in particular shared ones for
OS and CS, require dedicated support.
DITOs Policy brief

30. LERU recommendations (2016)
• For Universities: Recognise the field,
create a single point of contact, provide
ethical and logistical support, ensure
long term commitment to participants.
• For Funders: Address range of success
criteria, ensure community “pay back”,
and open science.

31. • Science Shops or
institutional citizen
science focal points –
providing access for
the wider community
to ask for support
Role of science shop/focal points

33. • Citizen science is growing rapidly
• Multifaceted aspects, which require mix methods
to evaluate & monitor
• Challenges of recognition
as valid excellent research,
institutional support,
and the most critical
indicator - funding
Summary

34. Follow us:
– http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites
– Twitter: @UCL_ExCiteS
– Blog:
http://uclexcites.wordpress.com
The work of ExCiteS is supported by EPSRC, ERC, EU
FP7, EU H2020, RGS, Esri, Forest People Program,
Forests Monitor, WRI and all the people in communities
that we’ve worked with over the years