Ethics in citizen science

Citizen science, in which researchers actively engage in co-research with members of society, is an increasingly common form of research. In citizen science projects, laypeople who are not themselves professional researchers are participating on a voluntary basis, for example with collecting data. In some cases, laypeople may also be involved in formulating research questions and contribute to the study design.

Just like any other research, citizen science raises a range of ethical questions and issues related to research integrity. How do you make sure that all participants within a given project abide by good research practice? Should those contributing as citizen scientists also be listed as authors on research articles? Is there a risk that citizens are unfairly instrumentalized or exploited? And what happens to informed consent?

In this webinar we will discuss these and other ethical challenges in citizen science. In doing so, we will present ethical guidelines and teaching material for citizen science ethics developed as part of the Erasmus+ strategic partnership project Bridging Integrity in Higher Education, Business and Society (BRIDGE, 2020-2023). BRIDGE seeks to bridge academic integrity, research integrity, integrity in business, and integrity in society. The webinar will be led by Sonja Bjelobaba and William Bülow O’Nils, both researchers at the Center for Research and Bioethics at Uppsala University and part of the BRIDGE project. In addition to the discussion about our educational material, there will also be an opportunity to discuss ethics and citizen research in general.

The webinar will be held on Zoom. No previous knowledge on citizen science or research ethics is required. Our targets audience are students on the advanced level (including master students and doctoral students) as well as senior researchers and supervisors.

Registration deadline: 27 January 2023. Register to join the webinar.

More information about the BRIDGE project.