Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals
Measuring the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires the collection of relevant and reliable data. To do so, Citizen Science can provide an essential source of non-traditional data for tracking progress towards the SDGs, as well as generate social innovations that enable...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/565 |
| _version_ | 1797777824141017088 |
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| author | Camille Masselot Rathin Jeyaram Raphael Tackx Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez François Grey Marc Santolini |
| author_facet | Camille Masselot Rathin Jeyaram Raphael Tackx Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez François Grey Marc Santolini |
| author_sort | Camille Masselot |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Measuring the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires the collection of relevant and reliable data. To do so, Citizen Science can provide an essential source of non-traditional data for tracking progress towards the SDGs, as well as generate social innovations that enable such progress. At its core, citizen science relies on participatory processes involving the collaboration of stakeholders with diverse standpoints, skills, and backgrounds. The ability to measure these participatory processes is therefore key for the monitoring and evaluation of citizen science projects and to support the decisions of their coordinators. Here, we show that the monitoring of social interaction networks provides unique insights on the participatory processes and outcomes of citizen science projects. We studied fourteen early-stage citizen science projects that participated in an innovation cycle focused on SDG 13, Climate Action, as part of the Crowd4SDG project. We implemented a monitoring strategy to measure the collaborative profiles of citizen science teams. This allowed us to generate dynamic interaction networks across complementary dimensions, making visible both formal and informal interactions associated with the division of labor, collaborations, advice seeking, and communication processes of the projects during their development. Leveraging jury evaluation data, we showed that while team composition and communication are associated with project quality, measures of collaboration and activity are associated with engagement quality. Overall, monitoring social interaction dynamics helps build a more comprehensive picture of participatory processes, which is of importance for guiding citizen science projects and for designing initiatives leveraging citizen science to address the SDGs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:10:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e18cc45398d0487187e431a34ab0796d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2057-4991 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:10:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
| spelling | doaj.art-e18cc45398d0487187e431a34ab0796d2023-07-18T08:13:37ZengUbiquity PressCitizen Science: Theory and Practice2057-49912023-06-0181454510.5334/cstp.565441Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development GoalsCamille Masselot0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0728-673XRathin Jeyaram1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1304-1229Raphael Tackx2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7940-6833Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0254-0794François Grey4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3471-5445Marc Santolini5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1491-0120Université Paris Cité, Inserm, System Engineering and Evolution Dynamics, F-75004 Paris; Learning Planet Institute, F-75004 ParisUniversité Paris Cité, Inserm, System Engineering and Evolution Dynamics, F-75004 Paris; Learning Planet Institute, F-75004 ParisUniversité Paris Cité, Inserm, System Engineering and Evolution Dynamics, F-75004 Paris; Learning Planet Institute, F-75004 ParisCentre Universitaire d’Informatique, University of GenevaCentre Universitaire d’Informatique, Geneva School of Economics and ManagementUniversité Paris Cité, Inserm, System Engineering and Evolution Dynamics, F-75004 Paris; Learning Planet Institute, F-75004 ParisMeasuring the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires the collection of relevant and reliable data. To do so, Citizen Science can provide an essential source of non-traditional data for tracking progress towards the SDGs, as well as generate social innovations that enable such progress. At its core, citizen science relies on participatory processes involving the collaboration of stakeholders with diverse standpoints, skills, and backgrounds. The ability to measure these participatory processes is therefore key for the monitoring and evaluation of citizen science projects and to support the decisions of their coordinators. Here, we show that the monitoring of social interaction networks provides unique insights on the participatory processes and outcomes of citizen science projects. We studied fourteen early-stage citizen science projects that participated in an innovation cycle focused on SDG 13, Climate Action, as part of the Crowd4SDG project. We implemented a monitoring strategy to measure the collaborative profiles of citizen science teams. This allowed us to generate dynamic interaction networks across complementary dimensions, making visible both formal and informal interactions associated with the division of labor, collaborations, advice seeking, and communication processes of the projects during their development. Leveraging jury evaluation data, we showed that while team composition and communication are associated with project quality, measures of collaboration and activity are associated with engagement quality. Overall, monitoring social interaction dynamics helps build a more comprehensive picture of participatory processes, which is of importance for guiding citizen science projects and for designing initiatives leveraging citizen science to address the SDGs.https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/565citizen sciencenetwork sciencemonitoring and evaluationsustainable development goalsteam sciencecollaboration |
| spellingShingle | Camille Masselot Rathin Jeyaram Raphael Tackx Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez François Grey Marc Santolini Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals Citizen Science: Theory and Practice citizen science network science monitoring and evaluation sustainable development goals team science collaboration |
| title | Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals |
| title_full | Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals |
| title_fullStr | Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals |
| title_short | Collaboration and Performance of Citizen Science Projects Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals |
| title_sort | collaboration and performance of citizen science projects addressing the sustainable development goals |
| topic | citizen science network science monitoring and evaluation sustainable development goals team science collaboration |
| url | https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/565 |
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