Dynamic changes in motivation in collaborative citizen-science projects

TLDR

Online citizen science projects engage volunteers in data collection and analysis, yet most have not fully realized the collaborative potential between scientists and volunteers. The study aims to understand the shared and unique motivations of scientists and volunteers and to identify key motivational shifts that can inform the design of technical and social infrastructures for more effective collaboration. Volunteers are driven by a dynamic framework of personal interests and external factors such as attribution and acknowledgment that shift throughout their participation cycle.

Abstract

Online citizen science projects engage volunteers in collecting, analyzing, and curating scientific data. Existing projects have demonstrated the value of using volunteers to collect data, but few projects have reached the full collaborative potential of scientists and volunteers. Understanding the shared and unique motivations of these two groups can help designers establish the technical and social infrastructures needed to promote effective partnerships. We present findings from a study of the motivational factors affecting participation in ecological citizen science projects. We show that volunteers are motivated by a complex framework of factors that dynamically change throughout their cycle of work on scientific projects; this motivational framework is strongly affected by personal interests as well as external factors such as attribution and acknowledgment. Identifying the pivotal points of motivational shift and addressing them in the design of citizen-science systems will facilitate improved collaboration between scientists and volunteers.