Successful citizen science, community-based monitoring, and other collaborative research efforts necessarily involve many different participants and stakeholders – and planning and running them effectivly does, too. The Citizen Science Association (CSA) aims to reflect this plurality in its membership, and invites all attending CitSci2019 to join the General Meeting, Thursday from 3:30PM-4:30PM. Learn about CSA’s new strategic plan, progress towards towards goals, and ways to get involved to take advantage of member benefits and inform future directions for CSA.

The meeting will also introduce CSA’s working groups, a great way to go deeper with advancing citizen science and your connections across the field. The working groups will be meeting over lunch on Saturday to discuss their progress and paths forward, and attendees are encouraged to join a group to learn more and consider getting involved. The Saturday meetings are a great opportunity to network with other stakeholders who have similar interests. Lunch is provided for CSA working group participants, and conference attendees will be given the opportunity to sign up to help a working group at the conference registration tables.

The Data and Meta Data Working Group- The mission is to support, advance, and facilitate data interoperability among and between citizen science projects, and other data repositories; and, to promote collaboration in citizen science via the development and/or improvement of international standards for data and metadata. If you’re interested in data reuse, data sharing, data standardization, or data interoperability, this is the group for you!

The Professional Development Working Group– The goal is to facilitate the development of effective professional development services for citizen science practitioners, researchers, educators, and others involved in the field. This group will benefit from the diverse group of practitioners and members from the CSA to collectively balance universality in training needs with idiosyncrasies. Join this group if you’re interested in discovering, creating and sharing suites of materials or policies or standards that speak to this diversity of practice.

The Research and Evaluation Working Group– A major goal is to gain field-wide understanding of the various social science research and evaluation initiatives currently taking place within citizen science, across diverse fields of inquiry, including but not limited to education, organizations, and social and economic systems. This effort may also support meta-analysis and syntheses of existing research and databases that are currently being underutilized. Join this group if you have ideas about how this group can best support the efforts of evaluators and social science researchers interested in studying citizen science.

The Education Working Group– The mission is to enable, inspire, investigate, and facilitate effective integration of scientific and educational goals, practices, and outcomes in citizen science. Join this group if you are interested in advancing the use of citizen science in education and evaluating the impact of using citizen science for education and learning.

The Ethics Working Group– The purpose is to explore and address a range of ethical concerns for which people (members of the public and practitioners) may be unprotected when public participants are involved as contributors and collaborators in various configurations of citizen science. Join this group if you’re looking for tools, resources, and best practices for involving the general public in the ethical design and review of research studies. Learn about the ethical risks and opportunities that would arise from the continued growth of citizen science (e.g. anticipating impact to current laws).

The Integrity, Diversity, and Equity Working Group– As mentioned before, CitSci2017 was moved out of Raleigh due to the passage of HB2, and that the move put the CSA under financial constraints which would not permit CitSci2019 to be held elsewhere. The issue of inclusiveness is not new to science or citizen science and this is the working group that seeks to address this issue. Join this group if you are interested in informing and advancing more equitable research partnerships and more equitable CSA services for the field.

NEW: Law & Policy Working Group– This new group will be announced at the Thursday General Meeting – join then to learn more!

Also, don’t miss connecting with the Journal Editorial Board at an exhibit table throughout the event. The Ethics and the Law & Policy Working Groups will be tabling as well.

Should you have interests in or ideas for new working groups on topics not covered here, please join the General Meeting and talk to a Board member about how to propose options.

Posted on: March 8, 2019  |  Category: #citsci2019, Blog, conference, CSA Blog, CSA Working Groups, News