Citizen science needs a name change

Elizabeth R Ellwood; Gregory B Pauly; June Ahn; Kate Golembiewski; Lila M Higgins; Miguel A Ordeñana; Matt von Konrat

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2023.03.003

Citizen science needs a name change

Trends Ecol Evol. 2023 Jun;38(6):485-489. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.03.003. Epub 2023 Apr 21.

Authors

Elizabeth R Ellwood¹, Gregory B Pauly², June Ahn³, Kate Golembiewski⁴, Lila M Higgins⁵, Miguel A Ordeñana⁵, Matt von Konrat⁶

Affiliations

¹ Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA; iDigBio, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. Electronic address: eellwood@floridamuseum.ufl.edu.
² Urban Nature Research Center and Department of Herpetology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: gpauly@nhm.org.
³ Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴ Communications Department, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁵ Urban Nature Research Center and Community Science Office, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Gantz Family Collections Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA.

PMID: 37088666
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.03.003

Abstract

Amidst attention towards improving equality, inclusivity, and diversity, citizen science is woefully anachronistic in its name. There is a critical need for this field to distance itself from the exclusionary nature of the term 'citizen'. We provide reasoning for abandoning this term and an outline for adopting a new name.

Keywords: community science; public participation in scientific research; terminology.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Citizen Science*
Community Participation
Humans