Every day, someone, somewhere, is participating in a citizen science project.
Yup - probably right now!
Aka community science and crowed-sourced science, citizen science refers to research which includes the participation of the general public. Citizen science can be found in a wealth of fields - ecology, medical research, astronomy, and more.
But who are these citizen scientists? As researchers Danielle Hunter, Caren Cooper (North Carolina State University), and Valerie Johnson (Shaw University) point out, in the USA, they are mostly white and mostly from higher-income communities.
Why does this matter? Surely someone's ability to, say, count fish or identify a bird or capture records that can help identify objects in the night sky doesn't depend on things like race or ethnicity? No, it doesn't.
But sometimes, it's important for collecting accurate data, like on lead piping and solder that causes lead poisoning from drinking water. In the USA, lead poisoning primarily impacts "lower-income communities of color," so if your citizen science project isn't asking those communities, you're missing out on a wealth of crucial data.
The researchers found that by partnering with carefully selected organisations to encourage people to sign up for a citizen science program collecting data on lead piping, they were able to get a more diverse set of volunteers that better represented the population of the USA than just letting people sign up on their own.
Take a look at the graph below. You have the breakup of the USA population as a whole on the left (National), then the volunteers who signed up on their own in the middle (Unfacilitated), then the volunteers who signed up through a partner organisation on the right (Facilitated).
There is another facet to this diversity issue the researchers raise.
One of citizen science's primary reasons is to engage everyday people in science and the world around us, share knowledge, and create community. If we only engage the better-off white people, can we really say that our outreach and engagement work is solid? That it's doing its job? That we are doing all we can?
Read the research brief at The Conversation US here: https://theconversation.com/citizen-science-projects-tend-to-attract-white-affluent-well-educated-volunteers-heres-how-we-recruited-a-more-diverse-group-to-identify-lead-pipes-in-homes-215581
Or the peer-reviewed paper (open access): https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10.5334/cstp.627
Finally, if you fancy trying out an ocean-related citizen science project, take a peek at this list: https://www.oceanoculus.com/news-from-the-sea/community-citizen-science-project