New paper: Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration

When the new journal about Citizen Science established, one of the articles that the editorial team thought should be included is a paper that describe the development of associations dedicated to the practice of citizen science. There are now several of these: the Citizen Science Association (CSA), the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA).

Following the Citizen Science 2015 conference, under the guidance of Martin Storksdieck, a Professor at the College of Education and School of Public Policy in 
Oregon State University, we set out to write the paper. The end results is a paper that discusses the need for organisations that deal with citizen science and the specific directions that each organisation adopted in order to address the local social, political, and scientific situation in which it evolved.

The abstract read: “Since 2012, three organizations advancing the work of citizen science practitioners have arisen in different regions: The primarily US-based but globally open Citizen Science Association (CSA), the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA). These associations are moving rapidly to establish themselves and to develop inter-association collaborations. We consider the factors driving this emergence and the significance of this trend for citizen science as a field of practice, as an area of scholarship, and for the culture of scientific research itself.”

Here is the paper itself Storksdieck, M. et al., (2016). Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.. 1(2), p.10. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.55