Review highlights role of citizen science projects

A review of more than 230 “citizen science” projects says the involvement of volunteers offers “high value to research, policy and practice”.

The review reached a number of conclusions about the value of data collected by volunteers:

• The development of technologies was “revolutionising citizen science”, for example through online recording and smartphone apps;
• Data quality could be excellent, but was not fully recognised by all researchers or policymakers;
• It is a cost-effective way of collecting environmental data
• There was potential to make considerably more use of citizen science that currently was the case.

BBC News.