Allf Bradley C, Larson Lincoln R
Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 5;20(9):e0331221. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331221. eCollection 2025.
Citizen science enables volunteers from the public to contribute to scientific research. While citizen science may be an avenue for "democratizing" science and facilitating learning among volunteers, projects tend to attract homogeneous volunteers already highly engaged in science. The emergence of facilitator organizations such as schools, churches and corporations, that connect existing volunteer-oriented groups with citizen science, offers a potentially viable avenue through which to attract more diverse volunteers, with more to gain from their experience. However, attracting and retaining these volunteers requires a detailed understanding of their motivations, and how different types of motivations might facilitate sustained, impactful experiences. The objective of this study was to evaluate the motivations, engagement, and diversity of citizen science volunteers recruited through a corporate volunteer program. We assessed these outcomes using digital participation metadata and a survey of 388 employee volunteers. Over the course of three years (2019-2022), this program enabled over 13,000 volunteers to contribute approximately 31,000 hours to 49 citizen science projects, though approximately half of volunteers participated only once. Survey results indicated that most volunteers (85%) were new to citizen science, and were more representative of the general US population in terms of their race/ethnicity, gender and educational attainment than typical citizen scientists. Volunteers' motivations were primarily self-determined (i.e., intrinsic). Less self-determined (i.e., extrinsic) motivations, like a sense of obligation or group pressure, were linked to lower levels of participation in the program. In addition, socio-demographic factors (race/ethnicity and age) were associated with differing levels of participation. In conclusion, volunteers from facilitator organizations can make significant contributions to citizen science and reshape citizen science into a more diverse and inclusive pursuit. However, sustained engagement by these volunteers relies in part on volunteers participating for intrinsic reasons. To facilitate self-determined motivation, projects should meet volunteers' needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy.
公民科学使公众志愿者能够为科学研究做出贡献。虽然公民科学可能是实现科学“民主化”和促进志愿者学习的一条途径，但项目往往吸引的是已经高度参与科学的同质化志愿者。诸如学校、教会和企业等促进组织的出现，将现有的以志愿者为导向的团体与公民科学联系起来，提供了一条潜在可行的途径，通过这条途径可以吸引更多样化的志愿者，他们能从自身经历中获得更多收获。然而，吸引并留住这些志愿者需要详细了解他们的动机，以及不同类型的动机如何促进持续、有影响力的体验。本研究的目的是评估通过企业志愿者项目招募的公民科学志愿者的动机、参与度和多样性。我们使用数字参与元数据和对388名员工志愿者的调查来评估这些结果。在三年（2019 - 2022年）期间，该项目使超过13000名志愿者为49个公民科学项目贡献了约31000小时，不过约一半的志愿者只参与过一次。调查结果表明，大多数志愿者（85%）是公民科学的新手，在种族/民族、性别和教育程度方面比典型的公民科学家更能代表美国普通人群。志愿者的动机主要是自我决定的（即内在的）。自我决定程度较低的（即外在的）动机，如责任感或群体压力，与较低的项目参与水平相关。此外，社会人口因素（种族/民族和年龄）与不同的参与水平有关。总之，来自促进组织的志愿者可以为公民科学做出重大贡献，并将公民科学重塑为一个更多样化、更具包容性的追求。然而，这些志愿者的持续参与部分依赖于志愿者出于内在原因参与。为了促进自我决定的动机，项目应该满足志愿者对能力、关联性和自主性的需求。
