European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). Principles of Citizen Science

Summary

The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and specifically the working group ‘Sharing best practices and building capacity’, developed the statements presented in its Ten Principles of Citizen Science, under the guidance of the Natural History Museum in London.

Its aim is to outline the key principles underlying good practices in citizen science. This document has been translated into multiple languages. The Spanish translation was carried out by Aitana Oltra, ECSA member, and Jaume Piera, member of the ECSA steering committee.

Promoting organizations

The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) is a membership-based network organisation for citizen science professionals and researchers in Europe. Founded in 2014 in Germany, ECSA is registered as a non-profit professional organisation and is member-led.

Objectives

The 10 principles proposed by ECSA to guide good citizen science are the following:

Citizen science projects actively involve citizens in scientific tasks that generate new knowledge or a better understanding. Individuals may act as contributors, collaborators, or project leaders, taking on a meaningful role in the project.
Citizen science projects produce a new scientific outcome, for example by answering research questions or informing conservation actions, management decisions, or environmental policy.
Both the scientific community and citizens benefit from participation. These benefits may include the publication of research results, learning opportunities, personal enjoyment, social benefits, or the satisfaction of contributing to scientific evidence that addresses local, national, or international issues, and through this, potentially influencing policy decisions.
Citizen scientists may, if they wish, participate in multiple stages of the scientific process, which may include developing the research question, designing the method, collecting and analyzing data, or communicating the results.
Citizen scientists must be kept informed throughout the project, for example, about how their data are used and what research, policy, or social outcomes are expected.
Citizen science is a form of research like any other, with its own limitations and biases that need to be considered and managed. However, unlike traditional science, it also offers opportunities for greater public participation and the democratization of science.
Data and metadata from citizen science projects should be made publicly available, and where possible, the results should be published in an open-access format. Data sharing can occur during or after the project unless restricted by security or privacy concerns.
Citizen scientists should be acknowledged in the project outcomes.
Citizen science programs should be evaluated based on their scientific output, data quality, participant experience, and the extent of their social or political impact.
Citizen science project leaders should consider legal and ethical issues such as copyright, intellectual property, data-sharing agreements, confidentiality, attribution, and the environmental impact of their activities.

In parallel, ECSA has developed working groups and programs, including the Citizen Science and Open Science group, focused on the synergies between these two areas, and the DITOs (Doing It Together Science) project, a pan-European scientific network framed within Horizon 2020, developed between 2016 and 2019, focused on analyzing and facilitating the elements that can help enhance citizen science.

To achieve these objectives and support the adoption of the 10 principles by organizations and working groups, ECSA has published a series of guidelines that are reviewed and updated annually. These refer to environmental impact, the use of media and social networks, style, working group structures, openness, safety policies in workspaces, and privacy policies.

Beneficiaries and stakeholders

As stated in ECSA’s own principles, both the scientific community and citizen scientists benefit from participation. Benefits may include the publication of results, learning opportunities, personal enjoyment, social benefits, or the satisfaction of having contributed to scientific evidence that addresses local, national, or international challenges, with the potential to influence policy decisions.

Results

As a result of the development and implementation of ECSA’s Citizen Science principles, the Doing It Together Science (DITOs) project was launched, a pan-European scientific network aimed at analyzing and facilitating the elements needed to strengthen citizen science. Framed within the Horizon 2020 program, this project focuses on communication, coordination, and support for citizen science activities, including:

Top-down projects, in which the scientific activity is coordinated, designed, and led by scientists.
Bottom-up projects, where citizens, whether scientifically trained or not, organize a research project around a specific issue, sometimes known as Do It Yourself Science (DIY Science).
Collaborative projects, in which both citizens and the scientific community participate equally.

As a result of this project, carried out between 2016 and 2019, the following citizen science advancement policies were addressed:

BioBlitz: promoting cross-border research and collaborative practices for biodiversity conservation.
Do It Yourself Biotechnology (DIYBio): towards open, inclusive, and responsible biotechnology.
Citizen Science and Open Science: exploring synergies and future areas of work.

In addition to the DITOs project, other initiatives aligned with ECSA’s Citizen Science principles or carried out in collaboration with ECSA include:

LandSense: a project funded under Horizon 2020 (2016–2020), aimed at unlocking the potential of citizen science and Earth observation to improve how we view, map, and understand the world.
WeObserve: a citizen science observatory focused on engaging citizens in environmental monitoring across Europe, funded by the FP7 and Horizon 2020 programs.
D-Noses (Distributed Network for Odour Sensing, Empowerment and Sustainability): a Horizon 2020-funded project aimed at introducing new mapping tools, data collection, and community participation approaches to support citizen science interventions in Europe and beyond, with the goal of co-creating solutions to odour problems alongside stakeholders such as industries and governments.
Panelfit (Participatory Approaches to a New Ethical and Legal Framework for ICT): a Horizon 2020-funded project designed to support EU regulations concerning data protection, data commercialization, and cybersecurity issues.

Challenges

Among other issues, ECSA acknowledges the challenges that certain stakeholders in science face when using data generated by citizens, as concerns may arise regarding data quality or potential legal and ethical implications.

On a technological level, the tools required to collect and process citizen-generated data can also pose a challenge, although advances in ICT have significantly improved this aspect.

In terms of accessibility, there is also recognition of the need for data, software, and other research outputs to be openly accessible, intertwining the citizen science movement with that of open access.

Evidence of success

Various documents published by ECSA, such as its policies and strategic plan, refer to successful examples where citizen participation has had a tangible and positive impact on decision-making. One such example is the EU Environmental Science Report, which acknowledges that some formal citizen science projects have influenced decision-making, such as the Citizen Observatory WEB (COBWEB) project, which aimed to collect environmental data using mobile devices and sensors to support the development of principles and policies designed to improve social, commercial, and environmental aspects.