Welcome to the resources page. Here you will find a smorgasbord of information on participatory science: everything from tools to help practitioners design projects; to policy briefs supporting decision makers to adopt open science approaches; to online courses for everyone wanting to discover what citizen science is all about. All of which are freely downloadable below.
This is just the start of things to come. We are in the process of compiling a spreadsheet of resources that we hope to integrate into a searchable library. Whether you are a school teacher after resources for your students, a policy maker looking for information on data standards or an academic needing the latest paper on motivations in participants.
Please add to our growing list of resources using the form at the bottom.
STARTING OFF WITH INTRODUCTIONS TO CITIZEN SCIENCE
Videos
Books
- Citizen Science; Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy, Eds Hecker, Haklay, Bowser, Makuch, Vogler, Bonn; Book
- Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World; Apt Russel; Book
- Citizen Scientist, Hannibal, M.A; Book
- Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research, Dickenson J. & Bonney R; Book
- The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen science; Cavalier, D.; Book
Websites
Reports & summaries
Magazine and journal supplements
Online courses
- Citizen science course; Opening up science for all!; Free online introductory course to citizen science covering the history and trends of citizen science, environmental citizen science, information technology in citizen science, understanding participant motivation, and evaluation of citizen science
- Introduction to Citizen Science & Scientific Crowdsourcing; UCL; A free in-depth academic online course at Masters level
FINDING PROJECTS AND ORGANISATIONS
Project inventories and project builders
- scistarter.com; US-based (global reach) library of citizen science surveys for citizen scientists
- Zooniverse; UK based people-powered research project builder and library
- UKEOF Catalogue: Access to information about environmental observations
- CitSci.org; Member- based site providing tools and resources to customise research
- Catalog; Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Catalogue
Programmes/Organisations explicitly embracing citizen science/linking up partners
- Public Lab; Website for a community where you can learn how to investigate environmental concerns
- OPAL; UK wide network linking up the public with universities, museums, other environmental organisations through Community Scientists and suite of surveys monitoring the health of the environment and the impact of doing so on participants
- CoCoast; Coastal hubs around the UK training citizen scientists to record and protect our seas and marine biodiversity through a range of participatory activities
- Earthwatch; World leader in empowering ordinary people to collect valuable scientific data, while providing those individuals with unique experiences and access to leading scientists.
- ExCiteS: Bottom-up practice and research group who takes into account local needs, practices and culture and works with broad networks of people to design and build new devices and knowledge creation processes that can transform the world.
- The Conservation Volunteers; Discovering citizen science with local community groups
- British Science Association; Promoting and partnering with mass participation projects
- Natural History Museum: Inviting visitors and beyond to actively contribute to museum research
JOINING COMMUNITIES
Associations
UK-wide groups
Communities of Practice around the world
FOLLOWING LATEST NEWS AND THOUGHTS
Blogs
- Engage NERC; Public Engagement with Research Blog
- Po Ve Sham; Haklay; Personal blog on Geospatial Technologies, GIScience, Citizen Science & Environmental Information
- Together Science. Doing It Together (DiTOS): Science Blog
- LSE Impact Blog for researchers, administrative staff, librarians, students, think tanks, government, and anyone else interested in maximising the impact of academic work in the social science
- PLOS Blogs: Citizen Sci bloggers bring stories about innovative projects, methodologies, and histories to help chart the changing landscape of public participation in scientific research.
- Citizen Science.org: Blog from the US Citizen Science Association
- Stay Connected: Blog from the Australian Citizen Science Association
- TCV Citizen Science: Blog from Conservation volunteers
Collective encyclopaedia
Social Media
- #citizenscience
- #citsci
- @OpenUpSci
- @CitizenScience
- @CitSciCentral
- @the_zooniverse
- @OPALnature
PLANNING YOUR OWN PROJECT
Designing citizen science
Working with different groups
Tools
Standards
EXPLORING AND USING FINDINGS
Databases, visualisations and management guides
- OPAL Data Explorer; interactive maps and graphs to explore the environmental data collected by OPAL survey participants across the UK
- FreshWater Watch; Water monitoring records mapped around the world
- Data Management Guide for Public Participation in Scientific Research; Wiggins, A. et al., 2013; DataONE: Albuquerque
- The art and science of multi-scale citizen science support. Ecological Informatics, 6(3-4), pp.217-227; Newman, G., Graham, J., Crall, A. and Laituri, M., 2011; Analysis of the data needs in different projects and scales
Open Access Journals
There are a huge number of journal articles available and a good starting point for searching for articles include:
EVALUATING IMPACT
READING ABOUT WIDER PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES
EXPLORING OTHER RESOURCE LIBRARIES
Thank you for perusing. We are very aware that this is not a comprehensive list and as we mentioned earlier, we would love to hear from you about your favourite resources. So please do get in touch.
