CSCW Principles to Support Citizen Science

TL;DR

This paper explores how principles from computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) can enhance citizen science infrastructure, promoting democratization of science through collaborative data collection and analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a nine-step framework to identify where CSCW principles can improve citizen science systems and infrastructure.

Findings

CSCW principles can support citizen science development

A nine-step framework guides integration of CSCW in citizen science

Enhances democratization and collaboration in scientific research

Abstract

Citizen science changes the way scientific research is pursued. It opens up data collection and analysis to the general public, to the wisdom of crowds. In this emerging area, there is much research to be done to better understand how we can develop citizen science infrastructure and continue the democratization of science. In creating such systems, there is much we can learn from principles that have emerged out of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) research. In this paper, I use a nine-step framework to highlight where CSCW knowledge can contribute.