Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Bradford Centre for Qualitative Research, Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2024 Jul 11;19(7):e0304976. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304976. eCollection 2024.
Citizen science with young people is becoming increasingly popular, and understanding their experience is valuable as it can improve research through improved participant motivation/ retention, alongside greater insight. The participants can benefit through opportunities to improve self-efficacy, learning, communication, and relationships. However, studies that explore young people's experience of participating in citizen science have not been synthesised.
This qualitative thematic synthesis aimed to combine the literature on young citizen scientists' experience of participating in citizen science research studies. Seven databases, Google Scholar and The Journal of Citizen Science Theory and Practice were searched from 2012 to January 2022 and updated in May 2023. The screening included identifying articles by scanning titles and abstracts and, finally, full texts and selecting the articles using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study findings were synthesised using inductive thematic synthesis (Prospero registration CRD42022299973).
Out of 3856 identified articles, 33 studies focusing on the participant experience were included in the synthesis. These papers were coded inductively. The resulting analytical structures were discussed and finalised. The researchers identified three main themes representing aspects of participant experience: relationships, power and personal growth, and three interwoven connecting themes: communication, self-efficacy and decision-making. An illustration of this would be communication bridging relationships and personal growth. As the citizen scientists' communication skills developed through personal growth, their relationships changed both with the project, with the researchers and with wider stakeholders outside the project such as school staff.
These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of participant experience and how this can be used to inform future citizen science projects to facilitate a positive participant experience.
青少年参与公民科学的活动越来越受欢迎，了解他们的体验很有价值，因为这可以通过提高参与者的动机/保留率，以及增强对研究的洞察力来改善研究。参与者可以通过提高自我效能感、学习、沟通和人际关系的机会从中受益。然而，尚未对青少年参与公民科学的体验进行研究。
本定性主题综合旨在结合有关青少年公民科学家参与公民科学研究的文献。从 2012 年至 2022 年 1 月，在 7 个数据库（Google Scholar 和《公民科学理论与实践杂志》）中搜索了文献，并在 2023 年 5 月进行了更新。筛选过程包括通过扫描标题和摘要，最后通过使用纳入和排除标准筛选全文和选定文章。使用归纳主题综合法（Prospero 注册号 CRD42022299973）对研究结果进行综合。
在 3856 篇已识别的文章中，有 33 项研究专注于参与者的体验，这些文章被进行了归纳编码。由此产生的分析结构进行了讨论和最终确定。研究人员确定了三个代表参与者体验方面的主题：关系、权力和个人成长，以及三个相互交织的连接主题：沟通、自我效能感和决策。例如，沟通可以连接关系和个人成长。随着公民科学家的沟通技巧通过个人成长得到发展，他们与项目、研究人员以及项目之外的更广泛利益相关者（如学校工作人员）的关系也发生了变化。
这些发现提供了对参与者体验的全面理解，以及如何将其用于为未来的公民科学项目提供信息，以促进积极的参与者体验。
