Collaborative Research: Establishing Norms of Data Ethics in Citizen Science

公民科学指的是科学家和公众在科学发现方面进行合作的广泛方式。通过这个短语？公民科学？是相对较新的，普通公众参与公民科学活动已有数百年的历史。然而，公民科学目前的规模和增长速度，往往是由数字通信技术促成的，是一个新现象。全球数以百万计的人通过公民科学项目为科学做出贡献，这些项目通常由配备GPS、应用程序和相机的手机推动。越来越多的教师和青年教育工作者正在向儿童介绍公民科学，越来越多的专业科学家和研究机构正在将公民科学纳入他们的研究计划。公民科学一直在世界各地迅速传播，并跨越多个学科。它通常是在传统机构之外提供资金，在没有大学等机构存在的传统监管监督机制的情况下进行的。这个项目将解决这些问题以及由此导致的公民科学中的伦理鸿沟。该项目将关注几乎所有公民科学项目都存在的一个共同问题--自愿收集和使用数据，这在保密和公开之间存在着重要的伦理紧张关系。这项研究将涉及：(1)确定和鼓励公民科学家进行伦理研究；以及(2)在公民科学协会内建设能力，为这种新出现的组织科学工作建立和维护伦理框架。该项目围绕三个阶段、混合方法的研究设计来组织，旨在调查公民科学中当前和理想的伦理实践，并通过与公民科学协会的合作，使用以人为中心的方法来创建公民科学的伦理文化。这些成果将通过以下方式实现：(1)创建数据收集做法的清单和类型学；(2)采用调查、访谈和焦点小组相结合的方式来确定从业者和志愿数据收集者对数据收集和管理的道德的看法；(3)创建最佳道德数据做法指南；(4)传播数据科学中道德做法的工具；以及(5)通过创建和传播公民科学协会伦理文化的定量调查来评估这些工具和最佳实践的使用和有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Citizen science refers to a broad spectrum of ways in which scientists and members of the public collaborate in scientific discovery. Though the phrase ?citizen science? is relatively new, members of the lay public have been involved in with citizen science activities for centuries. Nevertheless, the current scale and rate of growth of citizen science, often mediated by digital communication technology, is a new phenomenon. Millions of people globally contribute to science through citizen science projects, often facilitated by mobile phones equipped with GPS, apps, and cameras. Increasing numbers of teachers and youth educators are introducing citizen science to children, and increasing numbers of professional scientists and research institutions are incorporating citizen science into their research programs. Citizen science has been rapidly spreading around the world and across disciplines. It is typically funded outside traditional institutions and conducted without the traditional regulatory oversight mechanisms that exist in institutions such as universities. This project will address these issues and the resulting ethics gap within citizen science. The project will focus on an issue common across nearly all citizen science projects - voluntary data collection and use, which presents an important ethical tension between confidentiality and openness. This research will involve: (1) identifying and encouraging ethical research by citizen scientists; and (2) building capacity within the Citizen Science Association to establish and maintain an ethical framework for this newly emerging form of organizing science work.The project is organized around a three stage, mixed-methods research design to investigate current and ideal ethical practices in citizen science and to use human-centered methodology to create an ethical culture of citizen science through collaboration with the Citizen Science Association. These outcomes will be achieved by: (1) creating an inventory and typology of data collection practices; (2) employing a mixture of surveys, interviews, and focus groups to determine the views of practitioners and volunteer data collectors on the ethics of data collection and management; (3) creating a guide for best ethical data practices; (4) disseminating tools for ethical practices in data science; and (5) assessing the use and efficacy of these tools and best practice trough the creation and dissemination of a quantitative survey of the ethical culture of the Citizen Science Association.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.