Citizen science for beginners: finding a useful way to participate

Understand what public participation involves

Citizen science is public participation in scientific work. A project might ask volunteers to make observations, classify material or help with another defined part of an investigation. To get started, find a project that explains its question and your role, read its current instructions and practise the task. Once you can complete the task under the stated conditions, you can decide whether to contribute a real record.

The United States National Park Service describes public participation in science using terms that include citizen science and participatory science. Its introduction explains that participants can collect or process information for research, while organisers determine the questions and methods for the park projects it describes. The opportunity is to take part in a particular investigation with a shared purpose.

A notebook entry can be valuable to you because it preserves something you saw. A project record has an additional job. It must give other people the information they need to understand how it was made and whether it fits their question. Begin by finding out what that shared job is. You can keep your ordinary observations alongside project work and use each for its own purpose.

Find the question behind the task

Open the project description and look for a sentence about what the organisers want to learn. Then identify the part a participant can do. A project may have a broad interest in seasonal changes and ask you to recognise one named stage on a particular plant. The small task becomes easier to understand when you can explain how its result would help answer a larger question.

Look for the expected result of one task. Will you supply a count, an image with a description, a selection from a set of labels or a note on the status of a feature? Each answer calls for different information. If the page only describes a cause you care about, look for the project instructions that explain what participants contribute.

For a classification task, imagine a fictional project that supplies images and asks volunteers to choose from three labels. Before beginning, look at how the instructions distinguish a feature you can see clearly from an image that cannot be assessed. The task is to apply those definitions to the supplied image. Adding a guess about where it was taken would answer a question the image may leave open. If a project offers different roles, check which task you are preparing for and use the examples supplied for that role.

Consider a fictional group interested in when flowers are visited by insects in a public garden. A participant might be asked to count visits to a defined patch. A photograph of an insect could be interesting for a separate task, yet tell the organisers little about how many visits occurred during the observation. Before doing extra work, identify the output the project actually asks for.

A useful early check is to describe the connection in your own words. For example, the group wants to compare observations from different dates, and my part is to record visits under the conditions it specifies. If you cannot finish that sentence with the information available, mark the question you need to resolve before collecting data.

Read the protocol as a description of the record

A protocol describes how to carry out the task and report the result. Look for definitions of the subject, observation area, timing and categories. In a counting task, find out exactly what one count represents. A project counting visits to flowers is asking a different question from one counting individual insects. A familiar word such as visit may still have a specific definition in the instructions.

Look for the conditions under which a result can be recorded. A completed observation during which you saw none of the target feature is different from a planned observation you could not carry out. An uncertain identification is another situation. Use the categories the project provides. If you cannot find a way to report what happened, keep the facts in a private note and seek clarification before submitting.

Nature’s Notebook, a programme of the USA National Phenology Network, gives a concrete example of a task that involves repetition. Its observer introduction asks participants to choose a site they can revisit, select plants or animals from a list and make weekly observations. Those directions belong to that programme. Other projects may ask for a single visit or use a different way of choosing subjects.

Check the time the task takes from preparation through submission. Reading the definition, travelling if needed and entering the result can all affect when you are able to do it. Choose a first task you have time to complete as written, including any orientation or training the organiser requires.

Check access and what happens to the information

Before choosing an outdoor task, check where the project accepts observations and where you may carry them out. A project map or example does not establish permission to enter a property or leave a public route. Ask the organiser if the permitted viewpoint or access arrangements are unclear. A task that works from a place you already use can be easier to repeat when repetition is part of the method.

Consider the practical details that apply to you. Check whether a task needs a device, a connection, a particular route or an amount of standing that you can manage. Look for the available instructions and support. If a required feature of the task does not fit your situation, you can consider another role or keep observing privately while you look for an appropriate project.

Read how the project uses dates, locations, images and participant details. Some information may be visible to other users, shared in a research dataset or restricted by the organiser. Check the actual arrangement before submitting a location from home or a photo with identifying details. Use any approved privacy options in the way the project explains, particularly where it needs a specific location to use the record.

Keep observation and evidence gathering within the permitted activity. A missing photograph or a partial view can be recorded as a limitation. If obtaining evidence would involve stepping into a restricted area or disturbing an animal, choose an appropriate alternative or leave the record incomplete.

For choosing an ordinary route and noticing what is available along it, read An attentive walk close to home.

Rehearse one record before submitting it

The Natural History Museum’s Notes from Nature introduction identifies the observer, place, time and subject as basic parts of a biological record. Use those ideas to check whether you could explain a practice observation later. A specific project may ask for additional details such as the length of an observation or how you resolved an identification. Work from its current instructions once you choose to contribute.

Return to the fictional garden example. Imagine that the group defines one visit as an insect landing on an open flower in the selected patch. In the rehearsal, an insect lands, leaves and later an insect lands again. You may have observed two landings without knowing whether the same insect returned. The useful practice is to identify which of those statements matches the fictional task.

Now imagine someone blocks the view for part of the observation. Make a note about the interruption and look for a rule for interrupted checks. The important decision is whether the result belongs in the project under its method. Filling the gap with a guess would hide a circumstance that the organiser may need to know. A practice task gives you a place to find that ambiguity before making a real submission.

Keep rehearsals with your private learning notes unless the project has a designated practice channel. Label invented examples clearly. When you make your first actual observation, check that the date, site and result come from that observation and that your description distinguishes what you saw from what you inferred.

For a way to keep practice notes and unresolved questions together, read How to start a nature journal without collecting anything.

Make the first submission easy to understand

Review the record as if you will have to explain it after forgetting the visit. Does it say what you observed, where and when you observed it, and which method you followed? Check the fields against the instructions. If a requirement calls for an image or a particular category, confirm that the item you selected actually belongs to the observation you are entering.

Keep a note of what you submitted if the project allows it. That can help when you notice a misplaced date or receive a question about the record. Look for the project’s correction process and use it rather than assuming a second submission replaces the first. Where the project offers feedback, read it for the distinction that affected the record. The next observation can then address a specific point.

A submitted record and a research conclusion are different steps. Look at how the project describes review, use and publication of contributions. The submission page may tell you that the project received a record. Further statements about whether it was checked, accepted for analysis or used in a result require the relevant evidence from the project.

You can stay interested in the question after the task is done. Follow any updates the organisers make available and pay attention to how they describe the collected records. An explanation of the sample, the method or the limitations can show how a single observation fits into the wider work.

Choose a first participation plan you can follow

Start with one project description and one task. Write down the question, the result you would supply and the condition you need to check before beginning. Keep the current instructions where you can find them again. If the first practice exposes a difficulty, decide whether training, clarification or a different task would help.

After your first real attempt, review the part you can assess. Were the instructions understandable? Could you make the observation from an appropriate place? Did the reporting choices let you describe what happened? These answers can guide whether you continue, ask a question or change how you participate. A modest first contribution is a reasonable place to learn how shared scientific work fits into your life.

• Project question and task. Describe what the organisers want to learn and the part you can contribute.
• Conditions and evidence. Identify the instructions for place, timing, required fields and uncertainty.
• Practice and follow-up. Try one private rehearsal, resolve any ambiguity and find the current submission or correction instructions.