Initiating and continuing participation in citizen science for natural history.
Initiating and continuing participation in citizen science for natural history.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1186/s12898-016-0062-3
复制
发表时间：
2016-07-22
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Geoghegan H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Everett G;Geoghegan H
自然史在英国有着悠久的传统，可以追溯到查尔斯达尔文之前。博物学从主要的业余爱好发展而来，继续吸引着业余爱好者和专业人士的参与。在公民科学和公众参与的背景下，我们研究了公民参与露天实验室（OPAL）计划的国家调查活动背后的动机，着眼于：人们对调查的体验作为“基于项目的休闲”;他们参与的动机和继续参与的障碍;他们在我们的连续参与中的特点;以及参与OPAL调查是否有助于他们沿着这个连续体在类别之间移动。本文着重于一个不太预期的，但非常重要的结果，关于参与已经从事业余自然科学的公民。我们的主要发现涉及：第一，坚定的业余自然主义者（已经参与）如何也喜欢为OPAL做出贡献，需要尊重他们的兴趣并与他们合作，以鼓励更广泛和更深入的参与;第二，新的（以前未参与）和相对较新的参与者（已经参与）如何获得信心，重新激发他们的兴趣，重新确定他们的活动和/或通过参与OPAL获得认可。总的来说，我们认为，参与和热情的科学过程是一个动机共享的公民谁，在参加OPAL调查之前，以前未参与，已参与或已经从事自然历史活动。公民科学在很大程度上是由专业科学家为有兴趣开发自己项目的专业科学家撰写的。这项研究提供了一个定性的例子，说明公民科学如何对参与者有意义，而不仅仅是一个公众参与的数据收集活动。
Natural history has a long tradition in the UK, dating back to before Charles Darwin. Developing from a principally amateur pursuit, natural history continues to attract both amateur and professional involvement. Within the context of citizen science and public engagement, we examine the motivations behind citizen participation in the national survey activities of the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) programme, looking at: people’s experiences of the surveys as ‘project-based leisure’; their motivations for taking part and barriers to continued participation; where they feature on our continuum of engagement; and whether participation in an OPAL survey facilitated their movement between categories along this continuum. The paper focuses on a less-expected but very significant outcome regarding the participation of already-engaged amateur naturalists in citizen science. Our main findings relate to: first, how committed amateur naturalists (already-engaged) have also enjoyed contributing to OPAL and the need to respect and work with their interest to encourage broader and deeper involvement; and second, how new (previously-unengaged) and relatively new participants (casually-engaged) have gained confidence, renewed their interests, refocussed their activities and/or gained validation from participation in OPAL. Overall, we argue that engagement with and enthusiasm for the scientific process is a motivation shared by citizens who, prior to participating in the OPAL surveys, were previously-unengaged, casually-engaged or already-engaged in natural history activities. Citizen science has largely been written about by professional scientists for professional scientists interested in developing a project of their own. This study offers a qualitative example of how citizen science can be meaningful to participants beyond what might appear to be a public engagement data collection exercise.