Citizen Science as a Distinct Field of Inquiry

Citizen science has generated enthusiasm among environmental and conservation biologists. Although citizen science-generated data have enabled a number of research questions to be addressed, there is a growing interest in studying the process and outcomes of citizen science. The unifying focus of research on citizen science is the discovery of the socioscientific outcomes of expert-nonexpert partnerships that involve collecting authentic scientific data. Example areas of study include the modes of participant involvement, how identity in the context of authentic data may differ from that of informal science education, and factors of individual and community learning in the project context. On the basis of the unique development of theoretical ideas, we propose that research on citizen science should be acknowledged as a distinct discipline.