Our values of diversity, respect and collaboration, accessibility, participation, and integrity and transparency guide our day-to-day activities and our vision for the future. They serve as the cornerstone for our work to advance our goals, serve our members, and engage a broader constituency of individuals and organizations to collaboratively build a global network for citizen science.

Diversity 

Having multiple perspectives leads to stronger outcomes. We embrace the full range of citizen science actors and support the many ways of pursuing scientific research, the many methods of engagement in citizen science, and the great breadth of projects.

We respect, value, and celebrate the diversity of human perspectives and experiences across the globe within the citizen science community and our members. We value all citizen science projects, from ‘scientist driven’ to ‘community driven,’ from contributory to co-created, from online game-based to in-the-field and in-person, and beyond. The practice of citizen science will grow stronger when more diverse actors pose questions; inform processes; guide methods; collect, interpret, analyze, curate, and share data; and benefit from citizen science efforts.  

Respect and Collaboration

Citizen science requires meaningful collaboration among many professions, cultures, domains of expertise, and disciplines. We are committed to building a community of respect and collaboration within our membership and across organizations.

Citizen science exists at the crossroads of diverse domains, from astronomy to community organizing, from environmental justice to crowdsourcing, from gaming to environmental education, from science experts to science novices. To operate in this space we must be respectful, listening to one another with curiosity rather than judgment. We strive to complement and collaborate with existing organizations rather than reproducing their work.

Accessibility

We value actions that lower barriers to involvement and engagement in our association, in its leadership, in citizen science, and in science itself.  

Our meetings and the virtual and physical spaces we maintain are open to all citizen science practitioners. The CSA is committed to using plain, accessible language that is free from jargon. We envision a citizen science network in which all individuals participating or interested in citizen science are welcome, irrespective of where they are in their project’s lifecycle, their citizen science career, their scientific knowledge, or their unique abilities.  

Participation

Our organization is an expression of the ideas and work of our members, our working groups, our partners, our staff, and our board.

We value a membership that actively shapes the agenda of our association, contributes work to move our mission forward, and maintains or evolves the open culture of our community. We acknowledge and celebrate all levels of participation and create opportunities for members to share ideas, contribute, and critique.

Integrity and Transparency

We are committed to operating with integrity and openness, and adhering to the best practices of scientific research, engagement, and outreach.

We honor our roots in science and bring forward the best practices of transparent, rigorous scientific research. We are committed to building a climate of openness and trust with members, partners, funders, working groups, board, staff, and all those conducting the work of citizen science. We seek maximum appropriate participation in decision making. We aim to operate strong communication channels that proactively share our plans and invite collaborative input.

 See also: 2019-2022 Strategic Plan