Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa
Date
2019-07-30
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Academy of Science of South Africa
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.
Description
CITATION: Hulbert, J. M., Turner, S. C. & Scott, S. L. 2019. Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 115(7/8):5844, doi:10.17159/sajs.2019/5844.
The original publication is available at https://sajs.co.za
The original publication is available at https://sajs.co.za
Keywords
Science education, Public engagement, Science outreach, Science projects -- South Africa, Science -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
Citation
Hulbert, J.M., Turner, S.C. and Scott, S.L. (2019). Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 115, #5844, 4 pages. DOI: 10.17159/sajs.2019/5844.
Hulbert, J. M., Turner, S. C. & Scott, S. L. 2019. Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 115(7/8):5844, doi:10.17159/sajs.2019/5844.
Hulbert, J. M., Turner, S. C. & Scott, S. L. 2019. Challenges and solutions to establishing and sustaining citizen science projects in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 115(7/8):5844, doi:10.17159/sajs.2019/5844.