The Citizen Science Association also known as the CSA is a member based professional organization for practitioners and researchers of

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

. The CSA was founded in 2013 in the United States and was ruled a charitable organization with a 501c3 designated status in June 2017.

Ubiquity Press Founded in 2008 by Brian Hole, Ubiquity Press is an academic publisher focusing on open access, peer-reviewed scholarship. Ubiquity Press is a part oUbiquity which also provides full publishing infrastructure and services to university presses, and ...

publishes an open source peer reviewed journal called Citizen Science: Theory and Practice on behalf of The Citizen Science Association.

History

The concept for the Citizen Science Association originated at the Public Participation for Scientific Research Conference in 2012 held in conjunction with the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

conference in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

. Through a series of NSF grants
DRL-0610363DRL-1020909
an
DRL-0813135
the network of citizen science projects and professionals was further developed and the Citizen Science Association formation as an official organization developed along with a website. The

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

hosted the beginning of the Association web content and the Schoodic Institute helped launch the organization and is a continuing fiscal sponsor the CSA.

Activities

The association also holds a professional focused conference series every two years for the practitioner and research community to discuss the best practices in citizen science titled the Citizen Science Association Conference or CitSciXXXX where XXXX would be replaced by the year. For example, CitSci2019 was held March 13–19, 2019. The association has a board of directors elected by the members and a collection of professional working groups establishing standards, identifying best practices, focusing research, building technology, and exploring the ethics of Citizen Science. The Citizen Science Association has a memorandum of understanding with other Citizen Science Associations for collaboration and coordination. These other organizations include the

European Citizen Science Association The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) is a membership and networking organisation for practitioners and researchers of citizen science in Europe. ECSA was founded in 2014 in Germany and is ruled as a charitable and member-based profess ...

, the

Australian Citizen Science Association Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

, and the forming communities and associations in Asia (CitizenScience.Asia) and Africa. The United Nations officially recognised the Citizen Science Association and is working with the

Citizen Science Global Partnership Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

on how citizen science can best be applied to help tackle the Sustainable Development Goals.

Citizen Science Association working groups

The working groups as with many professional organizations focus on priority areas of the science and practice of citizen science. As of February 2020 the following nine working groups have formed. # Citizen Science Month # Data and Metadata # Education # Ethics # Environmental Justice Practitioners # Integrity, Diversity, and Equity # Law and Policy # Professional Development # Research and Evaluation

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

Citizen Science Association has a Ubiquity Press published, open-access, peer-reviewed journal called Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. Rather than focusing on reporting citizen science projects' scientific outcomes, but reporting research, review and synthesis, case studies, essays, methods, and meeting reports. The journal is published online throughout the year along with special article collections.

References

External links