Hundreds of volunteers position and adjust cameras in pre-selected areas along the Appalachian trail, and carry out procedures to attract animals to the camera for data collection. The data is used to track mammal movement and environmental changes in wildlife along the Appalachian trail under the MEGA-Transect project.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This article focuses on the potential contributions of volunteers to scientific research on wildlife in their local communities, such as research on the mammals living along the Appalachian Trail. It also notes the increasing use of citizen scientists across studies and their critical impact on the advancement of ecological research and findings.

Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research?

Jeffrey P. Cohn, Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research?, BioScience, Volume 58, Issue 3, March 2008, Pages 192–197, https://doi.org/10.1641/B580303

An example of citizen science research

The volunteers are not compensated for the work and most of them are not even scientists, but their passion for nature and concerns over environmental issues motivate them to donate their time and effort to projects such as this one. They are an essential part of the research and form a collaborative relationship with the scientists involved.

Why do citizens participate in research?

Given the inexperience of citizen scientists and their tendency to make errors, one might wonder why researchers do not instead rely on field technicians or graduate students for instance. However, the reasons for using citizen scientists usually come down to costs, ability to gather data on a much larger scale and over a longer period of time, and the potential to inspire an appreciation for nature in the public. Getting citizens involved spreads awareness on environmental issues along with a motivation to work towards solving these issues.

What are some reasons to use citizen scientists?

Although the methods for data collection may seem too sophisticated for volunteers to accurately carry out, volunteers are actually able to mostly master them once they are guided through the process. Designing protocols that can be carried out by ordinary people is also important for the replication process, where people outside of the study must be able to gather data in the exact same way in order to gauge the reliability of the study’s data.

Reliability of citizen science data

Sometimes, the data that citizen scientists gather is too vague or inaccurate to be effectively used in the study. Furthermore, depending on the study, certain parts of the protocol may be unrealistic for citizens to perform.

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