Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.
Center for Community and Citizen Science, UC Davis School of Education, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 19;16(1):e0245682. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245682. eCollection 2021.
Online citizen science projects have broadened options for accessing science and enabled different forms of participation in scientific research for adult and young volunteers. Yet, little is known regarding participation patterns among youth participants. Quantitative approaches were used to investigate the contribution of 183 young volunteers to citizen science on the iNaturalist platform and the participation behaviour that relates to their contribution. The participants accessed and used iNaturalist as part of one-day field-based events (bioblitzes) facilitated by museums. Compared to the observation behaviour of all iNaturalist users, as documented on the platform, the young volunteers observe fewer plants and birds, and more molluscs, arachnids and insects. The average daily contributions of young volunteers were found to be positively associated with a large proportion of active days on iNaturalist and a systematic contribution behaviour, yet negatively related to a long duration on the platform. This study enhances our understanding of young volunteers' contributions to citizen science and provides insights for research on participation in online citizen science. Our findings have implications on how museums design the field-based events to encourage follow-up systematic participation and maintain active contribution.
在线公民科学项目拓宽了人们获取科学知识的途径，使成年和青年志愿者能够以不同的形式参与科学研究。然而，对于青年参与者的参与模式，我们知之甚少。本研究采用定量方法，调查了 183 名青年志愿者在 iNaturalist 平台上参与公民科学的情况，以及与其贡献相关的参与行为。这些参与者是作为博物馆组织的为期一天的实地活动（生物大爆发）的一部分参与到 iNaturalist 平台中的。与平台上记录的所有 iNaturalist 用户的观察行为相比，青年志愿者观察到的植物和鸟类较少，而软体动物、蛛形纲动物和昆虫较多。研究发现，青年志愿者的平均日贡献与 iNaturalist 上活跃天数的比例和系统的贡献行为呈正相关，而与在平台上的使用时间长短呈负相关。本研究增进了我们对青年志愿者参与公民科学的贡献的理解，并为在线公民科学参与研究提供了新的见解。我们的研究结果对于博物馆如何设计基于实地的活动以鼓励后续的系统参与和保持积极的贡献具有重要意义。
