---
title: "Citizen science"
chunk: 2/19
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:48:48.750305+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

A Green Paper on Citizen Science was published in 2013 by the European Commission's Digital Science Unit and Socientize.eu, which included a definition for citizen science, referring to "the general public engagement in scientific research activities when citizens actively contribute to science either with their intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge or with their tools and resources. Participants provide experimental data and facilities for researchers, raise new questions and co-create a new scientific culture."
Citizen science may be performed by individuals, teams, or networks of volunteers. Citizen scientists often partner with professional scientists to achieve common goals. Large volunteer networks often allow scientists to accomplish tasks that would be too expensive or time-consuming to accomplish through other means.
Many citizen-science projects serve education and outreach goals. These projects may be designed for a formal classroom environment or an informal education environment such as museums.
Citizen science has evolved over the past four decades. Recent projects place more emphasis on scientifically sound practices and measurable goals for public education. Modern citizen science differs from its historical forms primarily in the access for, and subsequent scale of, public participation; technology is credited as one of the main drivers of the recent explosion of citizen science activity.
In March 2015, the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a factsheet entitled "Empowering Students and Others through Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing". Quoting: "Citizen science and crowdsourcing projects are powerful tools for providing students with skills needed to excel in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Volunteers in citizen science, for example, gain hands-on experience doing real science, and in many cases take that learning outside of the traditional classroom setting". The National Academies of Science cites SciStarter as a platform offering access to more than 2,700 citizen science projects and events, as well as helping interested parties access tools that facilitate project participation.

In May 2016, a new open-access journal was started by the Citizen Science Association along with Ubiquity Press called Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (CS:T&P). Quoting from the editorial article titled "The Theory and Practice of Citizen Science: Launching a New Journal", "CS:T&P provides the space to enhance the quality and impact of citizen science efforts by deeply exploring the citizen science concept in all its forms and across disciplines. By examining, critiquing, and sharing findings across a variety of citizen science endeavors, we can dig into the underpinnings and assumptions of citizen science and critically analyze its practice and outcomes."
In February 2020, Timber Press, an imprint of Workman Publishing Company, published The Field Guide to Citizen Science as a practical guide for anyone interested in getting started with citizen science.

=== Alternative definitions ===
Other definitions for citizen science have also been proposed. For example, Bruce Lewenstein of Cornell University's Communication and S&TS departments describes three possible definitions:

The participation of nonscientists in the process of gathering data according to specific scientific protocols and in the process of using and interpreting that data.
The engagement of nonscientists in true decision-making about policy issues that have technical or scientific components.
The engagement of research scientists in the democratic and policy process.
Scientists and scholars who have used other definitions include Frank N. von Hippel, Stephen Schneider, Neal Lane and Jon Beckwith. Other alternative terminologies proposed are "civic science" and "civic scientist".
A 2014 Mashable article defines a citizen scientist as: "Anybody who voluntarily contributes his or her time and resources toward scientific research in partnership with professional scientists."
In 2016, the Australian Citizen Science Association released their definition, which states "Citizen science involves public participation and collaboration in scientific research with the aim to increase scientific knowledge."
In 2020, a group of birders in the Pacific Northwest of North America, eBird Northwest, has sought to rename "citizen science" to the use of "community science", "largely to avoid using the word 'citizen' when we want to be inclusive and welcoming to any birder or person who wants to learn more about bird watching, regardless of their citizen status."

=== Typologies of citizen science ===
Citizen science initiatives are commonly categorized according to the level of involvement of the citizen scientists. Towards the lower end of involvement, terms such as crowdsourcing or contributory citizen science describe that citizen scientists contribute observations, collect data or merely offer computing power or install sensors to measure environmental variables. Towards the higher end of involvement, "extreme citizen science" and co-creation are terms used to describe initiatives in which citizen scientists are involved in decisions influencing the goal and research methods or even lead research initiatives. 