List of citizen science projects

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Citizen science projects are activities sponsored by a wide variety of organizations so non-scientists can meaningfully contribute to scientific research.

Precis[edit]

Activities vary widely from transcribing old ship logbooks to digitize the data as part of the Old Weather project to observing and counting birds at home or in the field for eBird.[1][2] Participation can be as simple as playing a computer game for a project called Eyewire that may help scientists learn more about retinal neurons.[3] It can also be more in depth, such as when citizens collect water quality data over time to assess the health of local waters, or help discover and name new species of insects.[4][5] An emerging branch of Citizen Science are Community Mapping projects that utilize smartphone and tablet technology. For example, TurtleSAT[6] is a community mapping project that is mapping freshwater turtle deaths throughout Australia.

This list of citizen science projects involves projects that engage all age groups. There are projects specifically aimed at the younger age demographic like iTechExplorers[7] which was created by a 14 year old in the UK to assess the effects of bedtime technology on the body's circadian rhythm and can be completed in a classroom setting. Other projects like AgeGuess[8] focus on the senior demographics and enable the elderly to upload photos of themselves so the public can guess different ages.

Lists of citizen science projects may change. For example, the Old Weather project website indicates that as of January 10, 2015, 51% of the logs were completed.[9] When that project reaches 100 percent, it will move to the completed list.

Worldwide[edit]

Citizen scientists anywhere in the world can participate in these projects.

Start End Project name Discipline(s) Sponsoring organization(s) Notes
2019[10] 2020 Hubble Asteroid Hunters Astronomy Zooniverse, ESA ESDC Research Paper, Zooniverse
2011 2012 Ice Investigators[note 1] Astronomy CosmoQuest.org[note 2]
2011 2012 Moon Mappers: Million crater challenge[note 3] Planetary Astronomy CosmoQuest.org[note 2]
2022 ongoing Spritacular Meteorology NASA, Catholic University of America
2022 ongoing Jovian Vortex Hunter Astronomy NASA, Southwest Research Institute, Zooniverse
2023 ongoing Deciphering Secrets: Unlocking the Manuscripts of Medieval Spain History University of Colorado, Zooniverse, University of Madrid, European Union's Seventh FPRTD
2022 ongoing Cloudspotting On Mars Astronomy, Planetary Research, Weather NASA, Zooniverse

Regional[edit]

These projects require that citizen scientists be local to a region of study.

Asia[edit]

Start End Project name Discipline(s) Sponsoring organization(s) Country (or region) Notes
2012 2012 Citizen Sparrow Ornithology Bombay Natural History Society India

Australasia[edit]

Start End Project name Discipline(s) Sponsoring organization(s) Country (or region) Notes
2010 2010 Big Sleep Survey Sleep National Science Week Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australia Big Sleep Survey
2016 2016 South Australia Great Koala Count 2 Ecology Discovery Circle, University of South Australia, University of Adelaide South Australia
2011 2011 The Multi-tasking Test Cognitive science National Science Week Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Queensland Brain Institute Australia Multi-tasking Test
2015 2015 Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count Lepidoptery Museum of Zoology, University of Malaya Malaysia Results published[11]
2012 2012 Sound Check Australia Audiology National Science Week Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Acoustic Laboratories Australia Sound Check Australia

Europe[edit]

Start End Project name Discipline(s) Sponsoring organization(s) Country (or region) Notes
2009 2013 BBC Lab UK Psychology BBC, BBC UK Discontinued in 2018, see BBC Lab UK

North America[edit]

Start End Project name Discipline(s) Sponsoring organization(s) Country (or region) Notes
1997 2007 Birdhouse Network Ornithology Cornell Lab of Ornithology US [note 4]
1994 2011 House Finch Disease Survey Ornithology Cornell Lab of Ornithology North America [note 5]
2010 2014 Maryland Amphibian and Reptile Atlas Herpetology Natural History Society of Maryland, Inc., Maryland Department of Natural Resources US (MD)
2015 2015 McMaster Postcard Project[12] Archives, Social Science, History William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University Library Canada McMaster Postcard Project
2023 ongoing Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring at Elkhorn Slough Water Quality, Environment NOAA, California Fish and Wildlife, Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Monterey County Consolidated Chemistry Lab, Zooniverse California

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Formerly Ice Hunters, a project to identify potential targets in the Kuiper belt for the New Horizons spacecraft after it completes its mission to Pluto.
  2. ^ a b CosmoQuest is sponsored by NASA in partnership with the Astrosphere New Media Association, the STEM Center, UniverseToday, Astronomers without Borders, the Planetary Society, the Ward Beecher Planetarium, the Galileo Teachers Training Program, Swinburne Astronomy Online, Dark Skies, Bright Kids, the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre and its member organizations, the Galileoscope Project and several NASA projects.
  3. ^ Over a million craters were identified and mapped in late 2012. As of March 2012, 1,207,486 craters have been identified and mapped by the Moon Mappers parent project that continues.
  4. ^ Formerly The Birdhouse Network which only monitored nests in bird boxes and similar artificial cavities. NestWatch is a new project that collects observations of open nests as well.
  5. ^ Per the project website, this project was absorbed into the current FeederWatch project.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Mapes, Lynda V. (February 16, 2013). "Citizen scientists can be climate sleuths too". Seattle Times. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  2. ^ Robbins, Jim (August 19, 2013). "Crowdsourcing, for the birds". New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  3. ^ "Update: EyeWire". Scientific American. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  4. ^ Schilthuizen, Menno; Seip, Lilian; Otani, Sean; Suhaimi, Jadda; Njunjić, Iva (2017-06-12). "Three new minute leaf litter beetles discovered by citizen scientists in Maliau Basin, Malaysian Borneo (Coleoptera: Leiodidae, Chrysomelidae)". Biodiversity Data Journal. 5 (5): e21947. doi:10.3897/bdj.5.e21947. ISSN 1314-2828. PMC 5740419. PMID 29308046.
  5. ^ "National Monitoring Network of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council".
  6. ^ "TurtleSAT Community Program > Home".
  7. ^ "iTech Explorers". SciStarter. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  8. ^ "AgeGuess". SciStarter. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  9. ^ "old Weather". Zooniverse. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  10. ^ Kruk, Sandor; Martín, Pablo García; Popescu, Marcel; Merín, Bruno; Mahlke, Max; Carry, Benoît; Thomson, Ross; Karadağ, Samet; Durán, Javier; Racero, Elena; Giordano, Fabrizio; Baines, Deborah; Marchi, Guido de; Laureijs, René (2022-05-01). "Hubble Asteroid Hunter - I. Identifying asteroid trails in Hubble Space Telescope images". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 661: A85. arXiv:2202.00246. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142998. ISSN 0004-6361. S2CID 241469611.
  11. ^ Wilson, John-James; Jisming-See, Shi-Wei; Brandon-Mong, Guo-Jie; Lim, Aik-Hean; Lim, Voon-Ching; Lee, Ping-Shin; Sing, Kong-Wah (2015-11-12). "Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count". Biodiversity Data Journal. 3 (3): e7159. doi:10.3897/BDJ.3.e7159. ISSN 1314-2828. PMC 4700385. PMID 26751033.
  12. ^ Thompson, Nicole (27 Aug 2015). "McMaster crowd-sources archival postcard project". Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved 27 Aug 2015.
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