Citizen Science: Online Books and Journals

This Open Access book is published by UCL Press. This book identifies and explains the role of citizen science within innovation in science and society, and as a vibrant and productive science-policy interface. The scope of this volume is global, geared towards identifying solutions and lessons to be applied across science, practice and policy.

In this book, experts from a variety of disciplines including scientists and education specialists working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where many large citizen science programs use birds as proxies for biodiversity share their experiences of creating and implementing successful citizen science projects, primarily those that use massive data sets gathered by citizen scientists to better understand the impact of environmental change.

In the last twenty years, citizen science has blossomed as a way to engage a broad range of individuals in doing science. Citizen science projects focus on, but are not limited to, non-scientists participating in the processes of scientific research, with the intended goal of advancing and using scientific knowledge. This book discusses the potential of citizen science to support science learning and identifies promising practices and programs that exemplify the promising practices. This report also lays out a research agenda that can fill gaps in the current understanding of how citizen science can support science learning and enhance science education.

This open access book provides a unique overview of the field of citizen science, explores and summarizes an innovative research field, has case studies which illustrate the varying aspect of citizen science and includes research based on a pan-European networks of experts.