Factors Influencing Quality of Citizen Science-Collected Litter Data and the Retention of Recruited Citizen Scientists

Citizen science has evolved from just a means to connect local communities to scientific research, to being actively used in a wide range of research efforts.

There are many benefits to using citizen science:

  • Creates environmental awareness

  • Increases interest in STEM fields

  • Generates cost-effective labor

However, there are several perceived limitations:

  • Citizen science data is often viewed as inferior or unusable by the broader science community.

  • Some of the primary concerns to the usability of citizen science data are the inherently different levels of background knowledge paired with training levels across participants.

  • Recruitment, and more importantly, the retention of volunteers participating in the data collection process is limited.

Project Goal

To further understand how external factors could affect the accuracy of citizen science (such as training level and background knowledge) and potentially influence participation motivations (such as perceptions, background knowledge, and demographics), this project aims to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of two different marine debris data collection protocols by trained volunteers and determine the influence upon their individual recruitment and retention.

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Jessi James, Extension Associate

jessi.james@msstate.edu

(228) 546-1045

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About Coastal Conservation and RESTORATION program

Our focus areas are broad and adapt to the current needs of stakeholders, but generally involve coastal conservation and restoration projects at local, state, regional, national, and international scales.