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Editorial – The Science of Citizen Science Evolves -- Chapter 1: What Is Citizen Science? The Challenges of Definition -- Chapter 2: Citizen Science in Europe -- Part I: Citizen Science as Science -- Chapter 3: Science as a Commons: Improving the Governance of Knowledge through Citizen Science -- Chapter 4: Citizen Science in the Natural Sciences -- Chapter 5: Citizen Humanities -- Chapter 6: Citizen Social Science: New and Established Approaches to Participation in Social Research -- Chapter 7: Data Quality in Citizen Science -- Chapter 8: A Conceptual Model for Participants and Activities in Citizen Science Projects -- Chapter 9: Machine Learning in Citizen Science: Promises and Implications -- Chapter 10: Participation and Co-creation in Citizen Science -- Chapter 11: Citizen Science, Health, and Environmental Justice -- Part II: Citizen Science in Society -- Chapter 12: Participants in Citizen Science -- Chapter 13: Inclusiveness and Diversity in Citizen Science -- Chapter 14: Learning in Citizen Science Chapter -- Chapter 15: Citizen Science Case Studies and Their Impacts on Social Innovation -- Chapter 16: Science as a Lever: The Roles and Power of Civil Society Organisations in Citizen Science -- Chapter 17: Citizen Science and Policy -- Chapter 18: Creating Positive Environmental Impact through Citizen Science -- Chapter 19: Ethical Challenges and Dynamic Informed Consent -- Part III: Citizen Science in Practice -- Chapter 20: Finding What You Need: A Guide to Citizen Science Guidelines -- Chapter 21: Citizen Science Platforms -- Chapter 22: Citizen Science in the Digital World of Apps -- Chapter 23: Communication and Dissemination in Citizen Science -- Chapter 24: Evaluation in Citizen Science: The Art of Tracing a Moving Target Part IV: Conclusions / Lessons Learnt -- Chapter 25: The Recent Past and Possible Futures of Citizen Science: Final Remarks. .

This open access book discusses how the involvement of citizens into scientific endeavors is expected to contribute to solve the big challenges of our time, such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities within and between societies, and the sustainability turn. The field of citizen science has been growing in recent decades. Many different stakeholders from scientists to citizens and from policy makers to environmental organisations have been involved in its practice. In addition, many scientists also study citizen science as a research approach and as a way for science and society to interact and collaborate. This book provides a representation of the practices as well as scientific and societal outcomes in different disciplines. It reflects the contribution of citizen science to societal development, education, or innovation and provides and overview of the field of actors as well as on tools and guidelines. It serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to get involved in and learn more about the science of citizen science.

14 pages, 2 figures ; Citizen Science (CS) is a prominent field of application for Open Science (OS), and the two have strong synergies, such as: advocating for the data and metadata generated through science to be made publicly available [1]; supporting more equitable collaboration between different types of scientists and citizens; and facilitating knowledge transfer to a wider range of audiences [2]. While primarily targeted at CS, the EU-Citizen. Science platform can also support OS. One of its key functions is to act as a knowledge hub to aggregate, disseminate and promote experience and know-how; for example, by profiling CS projects and collecting tools, resources and training materials relevant to both fields. To do this, the platform has developed an information architecture that incorporates the public participation in scientific research (PPSR)—Common Conceptual Model①. This model consists of the Project Metadata Model, the Dataset Metadata Model and the Observation Data Model, which were specifically developed for CS initiatives. By implementing these, the platform will strengthen the interoperating arrangements that exist between other, similar platforms (e.g., BioCollect and SciStarter) to ensure that CS and OS continue to grow globally in terms of participants, impact and fields of application ; The EU-Citizen.Science project received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation under grant agreement No. 824580. The research described in this paper is partly supported by the project "Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe" (COST Action), which received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation under grant agreement No. 15212 ; With funding from the Spanish government through the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) ; Peer reviewed

Interest in citizen science is growing, including from governments and research funders. This interest is often driven by a desire for positive environmental impact, and the expectation that citizen science can deliver it by engaging the public and simultaneously collecting environmental data. Yet, in practice, there is often a gap between expected and realised impact. To close this gap, we need to better understand pathways to impact and what it takes to realise them. We articulate six key pathways through which citizen science can create positive environmental change: (1) environmental management; (2) evidence for policy; (3) behaviour change; (4) social network championing; (5) political advocacy; and (6) community action. We explore the project attributes likely to create impact through each of these pathways and show that there is an interplay between these project attributes and the needs and motivations of target participant groups. Exploring this interplay, we create a framework that articulates four citizen science approaches that create environmental impact in different ways: place-based community action; interest group investigation; captive learning research; and mass participation census.

Special Issue Citizen Science Projects for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Development Goals.-- 17 pages, 2 pages, 1 figure.-- Data Availability Statement: Not applicable ; There is a growing acknowledgement that citizen observatories, and other forms of citizen-generated data, have a significant role in tracking progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This is evident in the increasing number of Sustainable Development Goals' indicators for which such data are already being used and in the high-level recognition of the potential role that citizen science can play. In this article, we argue that networks of citizen observatories will help realise this potential. Drawing on the Cos4Cloud project as an example, we highlight how such networks can make citizen-generated data more interoperable and accessible (among other qualities), increasing their impact and usefulness. Furthermore, we highlight other, perhaps overlooked, advantages of citizen observatories and citizen-generated data: educating and informing citizen scientists about the Sustainable Development Goals and co-creating solutions to the global challenges they address ; The research described in this paper was funded by the European Commission via the Cos4Cloud and MICS projects, which have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements 863463 and 824711. ICM-CSIC authors acknowledge the institutional support of the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) ; Peer reviewed

Interest in the formal representation of citizen science comes from portals, platforms, and catalogues of citizen science projects; scientists using citizen science data for their research; and funding agencies and governments interested in the impact of citizen science initiatives. Having a common understanding and representation of citizen science projects, their participants, and their outcomes is key to enabling seamless knowledge and data sharing. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual model comprised of the core citizen science concepts with which projects and data can be described in a standardised manner, focusing on the description of the participants and their activities. The conceptual model is the outcome of a working group from the COST Action CA15212 Citizen Science to Promote Creativity, Scientific Literacy, and Innovation throughout Europe, established to improve data standardisation and interoperability in citizen science activities. It utilises past models and contributes to current standardisation efforts, such as the Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) Common Conceptual Model and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Its design is intended to fulfil the needs of different stakeholders, as illustrated by several case studies which demonstrate the model's applicability.

24 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables ; Interest in the formal representation of citizen science comes from portals, platforms, and catalogues of citizen science projects; scientists using citizen science data for their research; and funding agencies and governments interested in the impact of citizen science initiatives. Having a common understanding and representation of citizen science projects, their participants, and their outcomes is key to enabling seamless knowledge and data sharing. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual model comprised of the core citizen science concepts with which projects and data can be described in a standardised manner, focusing on the description of the participants and their activities. The conceptual model is the outcome of a working group from the COST Action CA15212 Citizen Science to Promote Creativity, Scientific Literacy, and Innovation throughout Europe, established to improve data standardisation and interoperability in citizen science activities. It utilises past models and contributes to current standardisation efforts, such as the Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) Common Conceptual Model and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Its design is intended to fulfil the needs of different stakeholders, as illustrated by several case studies which demonstrate the model's applicability ; Peer reviewed

This chapter considers the interface of citizen science, health, and environmental justice. We review citizen science research undertaken by civic educators, scientists, and communities that aims to broaden scientific knowledge and encourage democratic engagement and, more specifically, to address complex problems related to public health and the environment. We provide a review of the current state of existing citizen science projects and examine how citizen science, health, and environmental justice impact each other, both positively and negatively. Specific challenges that relate to these projects are discussed, especially those that are not obvious or applicable to more traditional citizen science projects.

19 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables ; Marine processes are observed with sensors from both the ground and space over large spatio-temporal scales. Citizen-based contributions can fill observational gaps and increase environmental stewardship amongst the public. For this purpose, tools and methods for citizen science need to (1) complement existing datasets; and (2) be affordable, while appealing to different user and developer groups. In this article, tools and methods developed in the 7th Framework Programme of European Union (EU FP 7) funded project Citclops (citizens' observatories for coast and ocean optical monitoring) are reviewed. Tools range from a stand-alone smartphone app to devices with Arduino and 3-D printing, and hence are attractive to a diversity of users; from the general public to more specified maker- and open labware movements. Standardization to common water quality parameters and methods allows long-term storage in regular marine data repositories, such as SeaDataNet and EMODnet, thereby providing open data access. Due to the given intercomparability to existing remote sensing datasets, these tools are ready to complement the marine datapool. In the future, such combined satellite and citizen observations may set measurements by the engaged public in a larger context and hence increase their individual meaning. In a wider sense, a synoptic use can support research, management authorities, and societies at large ; The Citclops project received funding by the EC-FP7 Programme, grant agreement No. 308469. We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). ; Peer Reviewed ; Publisher's version

41 pages, 28 figures, 1 table, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230084.s001.-- Through the interface at [http://www.citclops.eu/search/welcome.php] users are able to easily download all data. All data are also available from the dataset with DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3497440 ; The European-Commission—funded project 'Citclops' (Citizens' observatory for coast and ocean optical monitoring) developed methods, tools and sensors, which can be used by citizens to monitor natural waters, with a strong focus on long-term data series related to environmental sciences. The new sensors, based on optical technologies, respond to a number of scientific, technical and societal objectives, ranging from more precise monitoring of key environmental descriptors of the aquatic environment (water colour, transparency and fluorescence) to an improved management of data collected with citizen participation. The sensors were tested, calibrated, integrated on several platforms, scientifically validated and demonstrated in the field. The new methods and tools were tested in a citizen-science context. The general conclusion is that citizens are valuable contributors in quality and quantity to the objective of collecting, integrating and analysing fragmented and diverse environmental data. An integration of these data into data-analysis tools has a large potential to support authoritative monitoring and decision-making. In this paper, the project's objectives, results, technical achievements and lessons learned are presented ; More specifically, all authors (LC, JP, MRW, OZ, JAB, HVDW, RB, AF, SN, PT, FV, MB, KD) received funding from the European Union's FP7 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 308469 'Citclops'. LC received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 824711 'MICS' and No 824580 'EU-Citizen.Science'

This book is the culmination of the COST Action CA15212 Citizen Science to Promote Creativity, Scientific Literacy, and Innovation throughout Europe. It represents the final stage of a shared journey taken over the last 4 years. During this relatively short period, our citizen science practices and perspectives have rapidly evolved. In this chapter we discuss what we have learnt about the recent past of citizen science and what we expect and hope for the future.

The capacity-building project "EU-Citizen.Science" started in January 2019 as a consortium of 23 organisations, representing 14 European Member States and a variety of partners ranging from universities to non-governmental organizations, local authorities, civil society organisations, small to medium-sized enterprises, and natural history museums. With the EU-Citizen.Science platform, we aim to develop a mutual learning space where different tools, best practice examples and relevant scientific outcomes are collected, curated, and made accessible to different stakeholders, ranging from interested citizens and media to scientific institutions, politicians and donor organisations. The project is supported by the European Commission funding-framework Horizon 2020.

The capacity-building project "EU-Citizen.Science" started in January 2019 as a consortium of 23 organisations, representing 14 European Member States and a variety of partners ranging from universities to non-governmental organizations, local authorities, civil society organisations, small to medium-sized enterprises, and natural history museums. With the EU-Citizen.Science platform, we aim to develop a mutual learning space where different tools, best practice examples and relevant scientific outcomes are collected, curated, and made accessible to different stakeholders, ranging from interested citizens and media to scientific institutions, politicians and donor organisations. The project is supported by the European Commission funding-framework Horizon 2020.