Welcome to the Research and Evaluation Working Group

Purpose
A major goal of this group 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. Additional goals will be incorporated that reflect feedback from the community about how this group can best support the efforts of evaluators and social science researchers interested in studying citizen science.
Objectives for this group
1. Support coordination and facilitation of research and evaluation that minimizes fatigue on the part of research subjects, whether they are participants or practitioners.
2. Provide more collaborative opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback on evaluation tools, research in progress, IRB policies, and other human subjects protection issues.
3. Facilitate the sharing of evaluation findings and provide access to outcomes of citizen science that can be communicated to broader audiences.
4. 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.
5. Coordinate with other working groups as needed to effectively achieve the overarching goal and major objectives.