CSA Chartered Groups

Chartered Groups are where things happen.
Groups work to advance big ideas, establish best practices, and convene topical conversations that move this field forward. Group activities may include preparing material for a webinar, short course, or workshop, compiling resource guides, and working with CSA leadership on special initiatives among other things. CSA Groups have been responsible for launching CSA’s journal, setting global metadata standards, defining fundamental values for community partnerships, and more.
Want to deepen your involvement with CSA and elevate your leadership in the field?
Join as an Association member to find details on how to contribute to current Group projects on CSA Connect. Groups have discussion spaces on our member engagement platform CSA Connect and meet virtually throughout the year and in person at the biennial conference. Members can access information on existing groups, and find options for proposing new groups, in CSA Connect.
Active CSA Groups:
The following Groups have current charters that have been approved by the Board of Directors. Click on the name of the group to learn more about the group’s purpose and notable projects they have led.
Groups bring great minds together to address shared concerns in the field. Groups, and their tasks, may be proposed by members or chartered by Association leadership. Active group leadership and participation is a benefit of CSA membership, and is supported via CSA resources. Groups may hold occasional public-facing events as a product or service, or as part of group outreach to potential new members.
The purpose of this group 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.
Notable projects include establishing global, transdisciplinary data and metadata standards for use in Public Participation in Scientific Research (Citizen Science) projects called PPSR Core, building and maintaining a Data Quality Resource Compendium for Citizen and Community Science, and hosting useful workshops at CSA conferences.
The purpose of this group is to facilitate and investigate effective integration of scientific and educational goals, practices, and outcomes in citizen science with a focus on enhancing accessibility, equity and inclusion.
Notable projects include a five part webinar series on using Citizen Science in Higher Education, a thoughtful post with 10 prompts to reflect on learning, and organizing successful sessions at CSA conferences.
Environmental Justice Practitioners Working Group (EJPWG) leaders have helped to mobilize CSA to address the science-to-action gap in research, especially as it relates to equity in science and in community partnerships. The leadership of the EJPWG has provided an invaluable service to both CSA and the field of citizen science as a whole by working twice monthly with CSA board and staff for open, honest, and transparent conversations to confront and advance the state of the field.
This 2022 Letter of commitment to the Environmental Justice Community from CSA Leadership outlines a set of organizational commitments to stand up for integrity in science inspired by conversations with and documents drafted by leaders of this group.
The JEDI Working Group is a hub for collaborative action within the Association and the broader field of C*Science. This Group advances JEDI in C*science research and practice through collaborations within CSA and beyond by creating safe spaces for participation, engagement, and expect ethical and inclusive conduct of science by all.
Notable projects include leading an effort to harmonize broad contributions by CSA members to define Fundamental Values, Process Principles, and Relationship Outcomes for community-driven partnerships, helping shape the Community Guidelines for CSA, and being available to review CSA programs and policies with an equity lens.
This Group provides collaborative opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback on evaluation tools, research in progress, IRB policies, and other human subjects protection issues. They facilitate the sharing of evaluation findings and provide access to outcomes of citizen science that can be communicated to broader audiences. Additionally, the group seeks to understand the status of research in the field and determine gaps to suggest a robust research agenda, which advances the development, implementation, and evaluation of citizen science.
Notable projects include leading successful evaluation workshops at CSA conferences, curating a resource guide of relevant literature , and hosting discussion events with CSA members. This group also helped formalize a process for distributing surveys on behalf of individuals researching the field.
CSA Conferences rely on the input from a group of volunteer planning committee members that reflects the diversity of the field. Like much of this field, our conference is supported by volunteer committee members who shape both the vision and design of our events as well as hands-on support with logistics. The CSA Conference Planning Committee meets monthly to discuss event themes, structures, and opportunities for innovations in how we conference.
Notable projects include pivoting to a virtual event in 2020, establishing structures to efficiently plan and implement virtual and in-person events, and making diversity, equity and inclusion a central focus of our conference events.
*Charter pending approval
Notable projects of this group include hosting eight public webinars on relevant topics such as privacy, consent, and Citizen Science in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, partnering with the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School to answer questions about relevant laws and policies raised by citizen science projects (see responses here), and curating a list of resources of relevant law and policy documents for the field.
*Charter pending approval
The goal of this group is to create, sustain, and advance norms of data ethics in participatory science. This group seeks to actively support the understanding and use of the Data Ethics Toolkit by providing a space for conversations and questions about the toolkit and beyond. They will regularly host asynchronous conversations about data ethics and invite group members to reflect on the ethics of their own practices.
This group (new in 2023) emerged from a NSF funded Grant “Establishing Norms of Data Ethics in Citizen Science,” No. [1835352], that resulted in the Data Ethics for the Participatory Sciences Toolkit. The seed for this project was planted in the Ethics Working Group (active 2015-2021). The toolkit was co-created with input form over 150 individuals, including many members of CSA working groups and beyond.
*Charter pending approval
Fostering discourse and develops resources to support integrity, responsibility, and ethics in the conduct of c*science research and practice. This group currently hosts a discussion forum on CSA Connect.
This group hosted webinars, authored blog posts, planned conference sessions, and curated a resource guide (available here) as an active working group. Group members also helped curate a Special Collection on Ethical Issues in CItizen Science in the journal CItizen Science: Theory and Practice. Conversations started in this group inspired a grant proposal for the Building Trustworthy Data Practices Initiative that resulted in the Data Ethics Toolkit for Participatory Sciences.
*Charter pending
Many CSA Working Groups have histories that pre-date the Association. CSA Working Groups both advanced initiatives that moved this field forward and helped formalize this community as an association. Below are some of the working groups that help shape this association that are no longer active.
CSA’s journal, Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, was initially coordinated by a Journal Working Group. This group oversaw the early years of the journal development and has since grown into a journal team composed of an Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Journal Editorial Board.
A Professional Development Working Group was active between 2015-17 and authored a series of blog posts on topics like “How to get a scientist to accept your data,” and “Where can I get scientific expertise for a citizen science project?” and curated sets of professional development opportunities at CSA Conferences. This group put a lot of thought into the design of professional development resources and support that are accessible and relevant to this diverse community of practitioners that have shaped the way we offer professional development opportunities as an Association.
A CSA Citizen Science Month Working Group helped lay the foundation for Global Citizen Science Month in April. Citizen Science Month is a coordinated effort supported by SciStarter, the National Library of Medicine, and CSA among others. Global Citizen Science Month encompasses events and opportunities to contribute to projects. This group informed evaluation metrics for the event and helped spread awareness about CitSciMonth opportunities with project leaders. Up-to-date resources and information can be found at CitizenScienceMonth.org.
📊 Data Ethics – Refers to trustworthy data practices for citizen science.
Get involved » Join the Data Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!
📰 Publication Ethics – Refers to the best practice in the ethics of scholarly publishing.
Get involved » Join the Publication Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!
⚖️ Social Justice Ethics – Refers to fair and just relations between the individual and society as measured by the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. Social justice also encompasses inclusiveness and diversity.
Get involved » Join the Social Justice Topic Room on CSA Connect!
👤 Human Subject Ethics – Refers to rules of conduct in any research involving humans including biomedical research, social studies. Note that this goes beyond human subject ethics regulations as much of what goes on isn’t covered.
Get involved » Join the Human Subject Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!
🍃 Biodiversity & Environmental Ethics – Refers to the improvement of the dynamics between humans and the myriad of species that combine to create the biosphere, which will ultimately benefit both humans and non-humans alike [UNESCO 2011 white paper on Ethics and Biodiversity]. This is a kind of ethics that is advancing rapidly in light of the current global crisis as many stakeholders know how critical biodiversity is to the human species (e.g., public health, women’s rights, social and environmental justice).
⚠ UNESCO also affirms that respect for biological diversity implies respect for societal and cultural diversity, as both elements are intimately interconnected and fundamental to global well-being and peace. (Source).
Get involved » Join the Biodiversity & Environmental Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!
🤝 Community Partnership Ethics – Refers to rules of engagement and respect of community members directly or directly involved or affected by any research study/project.
Get involved » Join the Community Partnership Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!