Research & Methodology

For research environments to adopt citizen science (CS), it is important that researchers, students, and administrative staff come to recognize CS as an evolving set of research methods that may have added value for their research. Researchers should feel prepared to develop new projects using CS methodology or incorporate CS into existing projects. Administrative staff should understand what CS entails to support the researchers in the best possible way. They should all also understand the potential social and environmental benefits of CS. There are opportunities involved in CS with extensive networks and funding opportunities that researchers should know about. The TIME4CS research GAs reflect the many opportunities for embedding CS in research activities and policies.

The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with a basic understanding of CS and CS as part of Open Science (OS) and enable them to develop and plan research projects that employ CS and OS methodologies. It will also allow participants to situate CS as part of the wider OS movement, enabling them to produce arguments for CS as a form of OS. And finally, it will introduce institutional changes needed to embed CS in research performing organisations (RPOs). Participants will get to realize the problems involved and have time to articulate possible solutions.

Themes covered

• Develop research projects using CS/OS methodology
• Expand running research projects using CS/OS methodology
• Plan or implement changes in organisational structures or functions
• Establish/belong to a CS network
• Establish or link with working groups on CS

Intended audience(s)

• Researchers at all career stages
• Graduate students
• Research-support staff in research performing organisations (RPOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or government organisations

Workshop description

This is a free workshop of two hours that provides participants with basic understanding of citizen science, enabling them to develop and plan research projects that employ citizen science methodology. The course is designed for researchers, graduate students, and research-support staff employed in research performing organisations, and no prior knowledge of citizen science is needed for this workshop. Citizen science as a research methodology offers unique opportunities for researchers and RPOs, NGOs or others seeking to engage volunteers in data collection and analysis while also expanding their research portfolio in terms of public participation in research and open science.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Objective 1: Describe and implement citizen-science methodologies in new research projects
• Objective 2: Expand existing research projects to include citizen-science methodologies
• Objective 3: Plan and implement changes in organisational structures that will facilitate the adoption of citizen-science research in the organization