Excerpts of an Interview about buergerschaffenwissen.de
The Online Platform for German Citizen Science Projects
with Mr. David Ziegler
Held on 2017.11.22
Q1. What is the definition of a citizen science project? What are criteria a project has to fulfil in order to be registered on the website?
Since citizen projects are very diverse, it is difficult to frame them with an exact definition. Currently a lot of research is being done on how to define and evaluate a CS project.
As for our Website buergerschaffenwissen.de, there are 2 main criteria. First, a scientific issue or question has to be solved. As the name “Citizen Science” indicates, the scientific aspect is essential, and this is where CS clearly differs from other voluntary projects. Second, the participation of citizens has to be voluntary and based on the citizen’s free decision. The same activities, such as observing animals or data sampling, will not be categorized as CS, if they are done in exchange for payment. At first glance this may seem obvious, but there are some projects where this definition is questioned. One example are projects which are part of a scientific curriculum at schools. In most cases it is a class-participation, and the individual student has no part in the decision making of participation. Can you still say that participation was based on free will? Another example is when transportation expenses or survey costs are provided. Will these costs be seen as payment? These examples show how difficult it is to draw a clear line between CS projects and other, similar activities or projects.
The Austrian official CS Website has been working on the evaluation of CS projects, and the results will be announced at the 4th CS conference, which is held on the 1st to 3rd of February 2018 in Salzburg.(The criteria are now published)
Q2. How is a project registered on the website?
In most cases projects apply for the website. Sometimes the website looks for projects which match the websites interests, but the decision whether or not to register is made by the individual project team. To leave the choice of registration to the projects side has been an issue of discussion but was finally agreed upon, because registering projects against their will or without their permission would infringe upon the free-will principle of citizen science. By the way, this is another reason why there are some projects which are not registered on the website, although they have a long history.
Q3. Could you give me a rough overview which steps are taken until a project is registered on the website?
The first step for application is to read the handout (2 pages) which you can find on the website. If the project team thinks that they fulfil the criteria for a CS project and want to be registered on the website, they are asked to answer 4 questions: 1) What is the project about? , 2) How can citizens actively participate in the research? , 3) How is the generated Data used? , 4) What does the research contribute to? . These are the questions which will be posted on the website, as an aid for citizens to find the project which matches their interests. When the questions are answered, there is a check by the registration team whether the project fits into the website or not. If the project is approved, the project will be uploaded on the website. We have a rejection rate of approximately 5–10%.
Q4. Which are some reasons a project has been rejected by the website?
There are 3 main reasons. The first one is pseudoscience, so projects with an occult touch or without a solid scientific approach are out. The second reason are so called “lone fighters”. In most cases they have a scientific issue or problem they want to solve, but they are more interested in publishing their own activities than working together with other people and giving the required feedback of their activities to the community, which is why we have to reject their projects. The third reason are projects where the main focus is on the participation of citizens, and there is not enough science involved. There has to be some kind of new discovery or a uniqueness to the data being collected, just like any other scientific research.
Q5. If people are simply processing data with various software aps of their PCs or smartphones, is this accepted as active participation, and if so, why?
The first point is, that the management of these projects are done by NGOs. Another point is, that the citizens are informed what kind of scientific research their smartphones or computers have contributed to. This enhances the understanding of science and might also trigger the interest of the citizens for these subjects. That is why we decided to include distributed computing into our network.
Q6. Which generation is the most active with regard to CS?
Unfortunately, little research has been done on this topic, so I can only answer from the impression I got when organizing the website and of the general understanding of the CS community. The contribution of retirees is very high, especially those with a scientific background, such as former university members, engineers or school teachers, and those who have professional knowledge and skills. As for children, age 12–14 is a dividing line age wise. Younger children are motivated and participate actively in projects, while older children in their puberty, are more difficult to engage. This trend has been recognized in CS projects cooperating with schools. Another trend is caused by the change of the economic situation in Germany. From the 1960s to 1990s, in the high economic growth period, both work and leisure time were stable so that even whole families found time to participate in CS projects. Now, the participation of the working generation is on a downward trend due to the fact that both parents are working because of the deteriorating economic situation.
Q7. Are there any projects where the information about the participants(citizens) has been collected and analysed?
For Germany, there is a project called “Wild Katzen Sprung” where the evaluation of participants has been done. The results are planned to be released soon. (Now published) Outside of Germany, the Zooniverse project in the USA is also doing evaluations.
Q8. Where does the money for the website buergerschaffenwissen.de come from?
The website has been funded by the German federal ministry of education and research (BMBF) from April 2014 to 2019. We have a significant annual maintenance cost, caused mainly by the personnel costs of myself (as researcher and editor) and a communications manager, who is based at our partner institution Wissenschaft im Dialog. After this period, ways to continue the operation of the website have to be found.
Q9. What was the first CS project? When was the word CS first used?
There are many theories as to what was the first CS project, but the most widely accepted one is the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which was conducted in the USA in 1900. The first time the term CS was used, was in Alan Irwin’s book “Citizen Science” in 1995. It has been in the last 10 years that the term CS has been widely acknowledged by society.
Q10. Does Germany have a long history of CS?
Yes, the voluntary participation of interested citizens, so called “Ehrenamtliche” in scientific research has a long history. Actually there even was a bird counting project at the beginning of the 20th century, which had to be cancelled, because the number of reports by citizens exceeded the data recording capacity of the project at that time.
Q11. There aren’t many projects with a long history on the website. Why is this?
Many of the projects with a long history haven’t thought it necessary to be categorised or recognized as a CS projects, and consequently have not gone on the web. Another problem could be the English language, as retirees, who form an important group of participants, often are not fluent in English. Some inquiries suggest that 50% of the people in Germany aged 65 and over have little or no English skills. This is also the reason why we named our website in German instead of using the English term CS.
Q12. Why is it necessary to define and categorize projects as CS projects, if there are some projects which are successful and have long-term participation without being recognized as a CS project.
There have already been some changes brought about through the adaption of the term CS. The first and most important change is the interaction between different fields of research. Before the term was adapted, a bird counting project in a specific city would know about all bird counting projects nationwide, but was not aware of the archaeology research group in the neighbouring town. By creating a common category for these types of projects and through the website as an online portal, projects have a chance to know about other projects in different fields. This might lead to exchange and cooperation between various projects. The second change is, that there are many scientific institutions which are interested in CS projects or cooperating with citizens, thus professionalizing the research work of a project. The third change is brought upon by digitalisation. With the help of digitalisation, a clearly defined CS project gains scientific respect, creates multiple contacts with the scientific community, provides access to many interested people and thus expands the scale of activities.
Q13. Which are the leading countries in the field of CS? What kind of position does Germany have in the world?
For large-scaled projects the USA is on top of the list. In the EU, the UK and Germany have been very active in the last years, but other countries like e.g. Italy, Spain and Austria are also featuring a lot of activities and have very innovative approaches to CS.
Q14. Have there been changes through the establishment of ECSA, a European CS community?
The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) was launched during the EU GREEN WEEK in 2013. It is yet too early to fully evaluate the effect of the community. The ECSA headquarters a currently based in Germany, because it is quite simple to found an NGO here; you only need 7 people and you can establish a legal institution, following simple procedures. There are more than 200 groups registered in the ECSA, but the team responsible for the actual management and organization is quite small. However, it is true that ECSA is attracting attention, as the EU is promoting Open Science and providing funding for CS through the Horizon 2020 program.
Q15. What is the effect of digitalization of CS?
There are 2 main effects: The expansion of data processing capacity and communication have become a lot easier.
Q16. Do you think that CS has the potential to become an important field in the future?
CS is attracting a lot of attention right now, but the scale of activities is still quite small. The rapid growth in recent years may be the beginning of CS developing into something bigger, influencing e.g. environment policies on an international level, on the other hand it could also be but a temporary boom. Many unpredictable factors may influence the political framework as well as the participants’ decision to stay engaged or to lose interest. Of course we strongly believe in the benefits of CS and are working hard for it to gain momentum, but only the future will tell. Still, we think that recent developments have been very positive, so we are trying to make the most of it right now.
