Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa

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dc.contributor.author Hulbert, J.M. (Joey)
dc.contributor.author Turner, Sophia C.
dc.contributor.author Scott, Samantha L.
dc.date.accessioned 2020-05-19T14:30:45Z
dc.date.available 2020-05-19T14:30:45Z
dc.date.issued 2019
dc.description.abstract Citizen science is a term for research that engages non-scientists in the collection and generation of data. Many citizen science projects exist within South Africa and, because of their success, we expect more projects will be initiated. In this Commentary, we discuss three projects based in, but not confined to, the Western Cape Province to provide context for their methods, specific objectives and overall desired impacts. We then identify a few challenges that we have faced from the researcher perspective and we provide recommendations for those interested in initiating a citizen science project in South Africa. Many projects involve citizen scientists because their participation enhances the breadth of the research through the collection of data over greater spatio-temporal scales.1-3 However, not all projects in South Africa have purely research objectives, some are education-oriented with the specific objective of empowering the participants. In some cases, the educational objectives may be motivated by the desire to engage local communities or by the understanding of ubuntu wisdom. Citizen science is therefore a powerful approach to address multiple objectives, but there are many challenges to achieving the desired outcomes. We outline these challenges below within the context of an education-oriented project, a research-oriented project and a project that combines the two objectives. en_ZA
dc.description.department Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) en_ZA
dc.description.librarian pm2020 en_ZA
dc.description.uri https://www.sajs.co.za en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Hulbert JM, Turner SC, Scott SL. Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 2019;115(7/8), Art. #5844, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/5844. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 1996-7489 (online)
dc.identifier.issn 0038-2353 (print)
dc.identifier.other 10.17159/sajs.2019/5844
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/74643
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher Academy of Science of South Africa en_ZA
dc.rights © 2019. The Author(s). Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence. en_ZA
dc.subject Public engagement en_ZA
dc.subject Science outreach en_ZA
dc.subject Science education en_ZA
dc.subject Research participation en_ZA
dc.title Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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