Editor’s Choice: The rest of the politisphere may be in disarray, but here is a ray of hope! If you have a moment, send a word of thanks. –LFF– Excerpts: The term “citizen science” means a form of open collaboration in which individuals or organizations participate in the scientific process in various ways, including—(A) enabling…
Editor’s Choice: This article is an excellent overview for a dedicated issue of 20 articles in Biological Conservation on the ever-expanding role of citizen science in that arena. Section 5 in particular has some thoughtful recommendations on next steps. — LFF — Abstract: Research taking place at the intersection of conservation and citizen science holds great potential…
Editor’s Choice: To succeed in producing high-quality science, citizen science efforts must account for potential bias from human input – even if it is to understand which factors relate to improved performance to increase efficiency. This article is a great example of this type of study with the interesting result that predicted efficiency gains from local knowledge…
Editor’s Choice: This article is an excellent example of crowd-based monitoring for public health purposes using the ubiquity of smartphones in urban environments. — LFF — Abstract: In this study, we attempted to assess the feasibility of collecting population health data via mobile devices. Specifically, we constructed noise maps based on sound information monitored by individuals’ smartphones….
This introduction points to the second issue of the Journal of Science Communication’s special series on citizen science. The first had much of interest, and this looks like an interesting one too. — CJL — Abstract: This issue forms Part II of JCOM’s collection of articles and essays exploring the field of citizen science. Here…
This news piece overviews two games that engage citizen scientists in helping to develop quantum computing. I am partial to these projects because as a physicist, I have always been drawn in by the deep mysteries of quantum mechanics. And as a fun side note – as it turns out – for at least one of these…
This review grew out of a workshop held in 2014, but it directly addresses issues of validation which are alive in the community today, and which are of interest not only to geographic information projects but to many data analysis tasks. — CJL — Abstract: With the ubiquity of advanced web technologies and location-sensing hand…
We are pleased to welcome into the world the new journal “Citizen Science: Theory and Practice” – one hope for this Citizen Science Today aggregator site is to bring forward grey literature from e.g. blog posts and promote it as an important part of the emerging conversation on citizen science that CSTP will only enhance. — LFF — The…
We could have filled this month’s edition of Citizen Science Today with articles from this special edition of JCOM. Instead, follow the link below to read widely and deeply about the field. – CJL – JCOM is an open access journal on science communication. Since the world of communication and the scientific community are now…
This isn’t a new book, but it’s an interesting take on an old story not much discussed in the citizen science community. Perhaps historians of twentieth century citizen science are needed alongside their more common nineteenth century colleagues. – CJL – Technological advances come in such small increments that we rarely think about their accumulated…