---
title: "Citizen science"
chunk: 7/19
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"
---

== History ==
While citizen science developed at the end of the 20th century, characteristics of citizen science are not new. Prior to the 20th century, science was often the pursuit of gentleman scientists, amateur or self-funded researchers such as Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Darwin. Women citizen scientists from before the 20th century include Florence Nightingale who "perhaps better embodies the radical spirit of citizen science". Before the professionalization of science by the end of the 19th century, most pursued scientific projects as an activity rather than a profession itself, an example being amateur naturalists in the 18th and 19th centuries.
During the British colonization of North America, American Colonists recorded the weather, offering much of the information now used to estimate climate data and climate change during this time period. These people included John Campanius Holm, who recorded storms in the mid-1600s, as well as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin who tracked weather patterns during America's founding. Their work focused on identifying patterns by amassing their data and that of their peers and predecessors, rather than specific professional knowledge in scientific fields.  Some consider these individuals as the progenitors of the citizen scientist concept, while others ascribe this designation to prominent figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Charles Darwin. However, there are also those who perceive citizen science as a distinct movement that developed later on, building on the preceding history of science.
However, by the mid-20th century, the scientific community was dominated by researchers employed by universities and government research laboratories. By the 1970s, this transformation was being called into question. Philosopher Paul Feyerabend called for a "democratization of science". Biochemist Erwin Chargaff advocated a return to science by nature-loving amateurs in the tradition of Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Buffon, and Darwin. This approach would prioritize the contributions of "amateurship instead of money-biased technical bureaucrats".
A 2016 study indicates that the largest impact of citizen science is evident in research domains such as biology, conservation, and ecology. The primary utilization of citizen science is as a methodology for data collection and classification.

=== Amateur astronomy ===

Astronomy has long been a field where amateurs have contributed throughout time, all the way up to the present day.
Collectively, amateur astronomers observe a variety of celestial objects and phenomena sometimes with equipment that they build themselves. Common targets of amateur astronomers include the Moon, planets, stars, comets, meteor showers, and a variety of deep-sky objects such as star clusters, galaxies, and nebulae. Observations of comets and stars are also used to measure the local level of artificial skyglow. One branch of amateur astronomy, amateur astrophotography, involves the taking of photos of the night sky. Many amateurs like to specialize in the observation of particular objects, types of objects, or types of events that interest them.
The American Association of Variable Star Observers has gathered data on variable stars for educational and professional analysis since 1911 and promotes participation beyond its membership on its Citizen Sky website.
Project PoSSUM is a relatively new organization, started in March 2012, which trains citizen scientists of many ages to go on polar suborbital missions. On these missions, they study noctilucent clouds with remote sensing, which reveals interesting clues about changes in the upper atmosphere and the ozone due to climate change. This is a form of citizen science which trains younger generations to be ambitious, participating in intriguing astronomy and climate change science projects even without a professional degree.

=== Butterfly counts ===

Butterfly counts have a long tradition of involving individuals in the study of butterflies' range and their relative abundance. Two long-running programs are the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (started in 1976) and the North American Butterfly Association's Butterfly Count Program (started in 1975). There are various protocols for monitoring butterflies and different organizations support one or more of transects, counts and/or opportunistic sightings. eButterfly is an example of a program designed to capture any of the three types of counts for observers in North America. Species-specific programs also exist, with monarchs the prominent example. Two examples of this involve the counting of monarch butterflies during the fall migration to overwintering sites in Mexico: (1) Monarch Watch is a continent-wide project, while (2) the Cape May Monarch Monitoring Project is an example of a local project.

=== Ornithology ===