Shared values in our community

Citizen Science Ethics
1

What are the shared values in our community that are relevant to Citizen Science?

2

I don’t know what your values are, so I really can’t say what shared values are relevant. Maybe I don’t understand your question.

3

For me some of the key ones that would spring to mind would be openness, inclusion, mutual respect, and setting realistic expectations (e.g. about roles within the project, expected outcomes etc)

1 Like
4

Thank you very much for your comment! Admittedly, the question supposes that there exist shared values in the citizen science community. Some might of course see this differently. With this question we wanted to ask what – if they exist – common ideas and understandings of “good” citizen science are within the community of citizen scientists, citizen science practitioners and project developers.

5

Difficult question.

I would guess that it is even difficult to have standarts of what are human rights around the world.
I would expect we can agree on rights like “I don’t kill, steal or lie”. But it may be even difficult to get an agreement of how to handle animals (as I mentioned in an other article).
I don’t expect ethics values to be the same with everyone. As our experiences in life are different and maybe others are more sceptical with their data or have in their work experience with real things (not in apps) that could cause harm (eg programming robots in robot assisted operations) and are therefore more likely to know about what could happen in real life if an computer program causes an problem than I would guess.

So I’d say, when I would take part in a study my values would be:
Data protection - who knows it is me to take part?
Who knows where I am /where I live?
How is the data /app whatever fianced?
Am I paid for the contribution? If yes, how would it inflict the data?
How do you protect children?
What is the purpose of the “study”? (-> informed concent).
What will you do with the data? Could it be selled to others? For advertising? Or to make their own studies with data contributed by me?
How to make sure no one mess up with the data - so not to destroy the data base for eg a doctors degree.
Can I decide to be anonymous or to be mentioned as a author (if at all possible?)

When I do collect the data outside “in real life” and I have an accident (like breaking my leg while counting butterflies) - is there an insurance? Or is it my own risk?

As I only know about 3 citizens science projects I can’t imagine what risks there could be further.

Maybe we could make a list connecting with this question where people can explain the studies they are doing? Just to get an image of the possibilities?

(okay, thanks to pietro I know now about stall catchers and the risk of the game addiction.)

But do you have any more examples?

Best, Eva

6

Hi @Eva! Thank you for your reply and those interesting insights. I like the idea of comparing different projects! Regarding the possibilities, there are numerous projects to explore e.g. on “Scistarter” (https://scistarter.org) or “Bürger schaffen wissen” (Projekte entdecken | Bürger schaffen Wissen).

7

Hello LVep,
Thanks for the links.
Yeah, this is what I meant. A List to get an overview of potential citizens science. To get an impression on how the research can be done and where the problems could be.

I’ve looked into some of the projects, just to read the Title…
I was nearly overwhelmed of the amount of possibilities. Need more time to get an impression on the stuff they are doing.

Thanks.

Have a great time.
Best, Eva

8

Hi Eva!
Yeah, it’s impressive and overwhelming how many different projects exist out there! It takes a lot of time to browse through all those projects :slightly_smiling_face:
Best wishes,
LVep