The science of citizen science: Exploring barriers to use as a primary research tool
The science of citizen science: Exploring barriers to use as a primary research tool
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.014
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发表时间：
2017-04-01
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
Parrish, J. K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Burgess, H. K.;DeBey, L. B.;Parrish, J. K.
生物多样性公民科学项目在数量、规模和范围上都在不断增长，并且作为建立公众参与的有价值的数据来源而获得认可。然而，出版率表明，公民科学仍然很少被用作保护研究的主要工具，这种明显的脱节的原因还没有得到定量评估。为了揭示使用公民科学作为研究工具的障碍，我们调查了专业生物多样性科学家（n = 423）和公民科学项目经理（n = 125）。我们使用非参数递归模型（随机森林）进行了三次分析，使用的问题是：科学家对公民科学的看法和偏好，科学家对自己数据的要求，以及公民科学项目的实际做法。对于所有三个分析，我们确定了影响使用公民科学数据发表概率的最重要因素。出现了四个一般性障碍：科学家对符合其需求的公民科学项目的认识狭隘;并非所有生物多样性科学都适合公民科学;公民科学项目的数据质量不一致;科学家对某些数据来源（机构和数据收集者的年龄/教育水平）存在偏见。值得注意的是，我们发现有限的证据表明满足科学家偏见的公民科学项目与数据质量或出版概率之间的关系。这些结果表明，需要更大的知名度的公民科学实践方面的生物多样性科学的要求，并表明，解决科学家之间的偏见，可以提高公民科学在保护中的应用。(C)2016由Elsevier Ltd.出版
Biodiversity citizen science projects are growing in number, size, and scope, and are gaining recognition as valuable data sources that build public engagement. Yet publication rates indicate that citizen science is still infrequently used as a primary tool for conservation research and the causes of this apparent disconnect have not been quantitatively evaluated. To uncover the barriers to the use of citizen science as a research tool, we surveyed professional biodiversity scientists (n = 423) and citizen science project managers (n = 125). We conducted three analyses using non-parametric recursive modeling (random forest), using questions that addressed: scientists' perceptions and preferences regarding citizen science, scientists' requirements for their own data, and the actual practices of citizen science projects. For all three analyses we identified the most important factors that influence the probability of publication using citizen science data. Four general barriers emerged: a narrow awareness among scientists of citizen science projects that match their needs; the fact that not all biodiversity science is well-suited for citizen science; inconsistency in data quality across citizen science projects; and bias among scientists for certain data sources (institutions and ages/education levels of data collectors). Notably, we find limited evidence to suggest a relationship between citizen science projects that satisfy scientists' biases and data quality or probability of publication. These results illuminate the need for greater visibility of citizen science practices with respect to the requirements of biodiversity science and show that addressing bias among scientists could improve application of citizen science in conservation. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.