Tools & Resources
Everything to help you out with citizen science, from publications, guides to useful tools and toolkits for researchers and teachers.
These tools and resources are provided based on the steps of the research cycle (see image). You can find more information and background on this at the “Getting started” page.
Quick links
General tools & resources
What do you need to think of when starting and developing a citizen science project? This is different for each step in the process, these publications help you find your way in citizen science.
Step 1: Discover & Initiate
Here you give shape to the general idea of your research: what do you want to achieve and what are the options for citizens to be involved in it?
Steps to take in this phase
- Check feasibility of the research question and subject for citizen science
Involving society in your research is always a good idea, but not every research question or subject is fit for citizen science. - Check relevance of research question for scientific advancement ánd participating citizens/society
Even though creating engagement and awareness are often important in citizen science, keep in mind that the main goal should be to answer an real research question that advances knowledge. - Optional: co-design with citizens
There are many tools to help you involve citizens early in the process, and involve them not just in data collection or analysis, but also in defining the question and methodology.
Step 2: Plan & Design
Design your methodology to fit your citizen science and research goals and make sure that you have everything planned out.
Steps to take in this phase
- Find collaborations that will help in engaging citizens or furthering the research or methodology
These can often be found outside universities: NGO’s, civil groups, community houses, etc. - Develop a scientifically robust methodology suitable for citizen science
The methodology should be executable by non-experts, but still have scientific rigor. Also think about methods to validate the collected data. - Be aware (but not scared of!) of privacy and data-management
You need to be aware of how to handle (personal) data, copyright and data-ownership. Collecting and working with (personal) data can seem daunting, but there are tools and support available to help you out. - Include an engagement and communication plan for participating citizens
Decide the scale of the project, how many people do you want (or need) to join and what are they going to do? Also think about which groups would be suitable to involve in the project. A soccer club might be less interested in identifying butterflies than people who are involved in gardening. - Make sure you have allocated funding
If needed, make sure to include additional funding and time for citizen science tasks during the research project.
Step 3: Collect & Store
Citizen scientists will often help you collect data. Make use of the available tools so that you can make sure they know how to do that and can easily submit their data, and make sure it is stored safely.
Steps to take in this phase
- Create communication and education materials (e.g. manuals)
Make sure that communication with the citizen scientists and their instructions are clear. - Train and prepare citizen scientists
This means developing an educational plan or training and making sure that the materials and information are clear, accessible and distributed to all participants. - Create a suitable data collection system
There are many ways and platforms to set up a reliable and user-friendly infrastructure for data collection. - Collaborate and communicate with the citizen scientists
Make sure they can contact you or your colleagues for questions or trouble-shooting and give them regular updates, for instance via newsletters. - Evaluate experiences of citizens and impact of the project
If one of your goals is to create engagement or awareness, it is important to keep track of how people experienced the project and whether you have reached the goals you aimed for.
Step 4: Process & Analyze
If citizens are involved in processing or analyzing data, it is important to create an suitable infrastructure and guidelines.
Steps to take in this phase
- Create instructions, guidelines or a manual on how to do the processing or analysis
- Make sure all participants involved have access to the right tools or software
- Keep in mind the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation, AVG in Dutch) when sharing data with other researchers and citizens
There are tools and guidelines available to help you process data correctly and make sure they are truly anonymous. Additionally, the privacy department of the TU can help you with any questions you have.
Step 5: Document & Preserve
Make sure that the results and practices of your project are traceable, reproducible and also as open as possible, also long term (see also the Open Science webpage for help and inspiration).
Steps to take in this phase
- Store your data in an accessible and save way
Make sure that the data is truly anonymized, stored safely, but also accessible (open) - Make sure that your data is documented well, think about meta-data
Step 6: Publish & Share
When publishing or sharing your research and results, you need to be aware of a few extra things when citizens are involved.
Steps to take in this phase
- Acknowledge everyone involved
Make sure to acknowledge the efforts of the citizen scientists in every publication, outreach, etc. In some cases, the citizen scientists can even be listed as authors to scientific papers. - Be aware of data-ownership, copyrights and Intellectual Property (IP)
Since other people have been collecting, submitting or analyzing data you need to keep in mind their rights and how to handle those when you share data or results with others. - Don’t forget to share results outside the scientific world: make it understandable!
Communicate the results with your citizen scientists and society as a whole. This may require some ‘translation’ of results to citizens (e.g., using lay language, use of data visualization or infographics or other media). Don’t forget to acknowledge the work and input of the citizen scientists.