Special Issue Call for Papers: Policy Perspectives in Citizen Science

I just posted this announcement in this thread, but thought it might be of general interest to this group so re-posting as an independent thread (hope that’s OK?).

I think it is an opportunity to inject some GOSH principles into an important conversation about citizen science in a top academic citizen science journal:

Special Issue Call for Papers:
Policy Perspectives in Citizen Science

Issue editors: Lea A. Shanley, Anne Bowser, and Aletta Bonn

Citizen science and crowdsourcing enable the public to make meaningful contributions to scientific and engineering research and monitoring. These approaches also produce accurate data to inform a wide range of management and public policy issues while encouraging civic partnerships with government at all levels:

· Through local scale activities, as demonstrated through drinking water quality monitoring in Flint, Michigan;
· Through national or supranational scale activities, as revealed in the National Telecommunications & Information Administration’s National Broadband Map; and,
· Through local-to global scale activities, including the inclusion of participatory monitoring and management in international biodiversity assessments.

Conversely, the impact of citizen science on public policy is often constrained by legal, policy, and institutional barriers, which consider issues including privacy, liability, physical and intellectual property, data quality assurance (or “fitness for use”), and organizational cultural change, among others. This special issue of the Citizen Science Journal will invite contributions that explore the ways in which citizen science may inform management and public policy, or that examine the legal, policy, and organizational challenges to conducting citizen science, including strategies for improving bureaucratic processes to increase the impact of citizen science on public sector policies and practices.

Among many possible citizen science and public policy issues, this Special Issue could address the following:

· What are the opportunities for citizen science to work with decision-makers in all levels of government, indigenous communities, and NGOs to inform management and shape public policy? How do we measure success and impact?
· How can science and technology policy be crafted to support citizen science, either through opening opportunities or mitigating barriers?
· What legal issues must be considered and addressed when developing and implementing citizen science projects?
· How do we make citizen science data information more trustworthy, efficient, and actionable for management and public decision-making? What do concepts like “fitness for purpose” mean in practice?

This special issue invites research articles and research perspectives along with articles in other formats, such as essays, as outlined on the Theory and Practice website.

Abstracts (250-300 words) for proposed papers due by March 1, 2018
to the Editorial team (citscipolicy@gmail.com)
Notification of accepted abstracts by April 1, 2018
2-Page extended abstract (750-1,000 words) of approved contributions due by May 1, 2018
to the Editorial team (citscipolicy@gmail.com)
Submissions of full approved papers due by September 1, 2018 at
http://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/

With questions about this issue, contact citscipolicy@gmail.com

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal providing a central space for cross-disciplinary scholarly exchanges aimed at advancing the field of citizen science. It focuses on advancing the field of citizen science by providing a venue for citizen science researchers and practitioners – scientists, information technologists, conservation biologists, community health organizers, educators, evaluators, urban planners, and more – to share best practices in conceiving, developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining projects that facilitate public participation in scientific endeavors in any discipline.

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Hey @all ! is anyone interested in writing something about this? I’d be up to team up

Juanma

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Hey @hpy, @juanmagararc
At GOSH 2017, one of the sessions was on compatibility of legal frameworks in different countries with open science principles. This thread has notes from the session: Legal and Policy Issues

One of the ‘next steps’ was to look at legal frameworks in different countries and come up with a compendia of sorts. I wanted to start working on it this month in any case. I am not sure if it would fit the format of the conference, but happy to collaborate on it towards a submission if that interests you guys. Might be good to have a hard deadline in any case.

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Hi,
In case you are interested, just look this post of my colleague from OCSDnet…

https://ocsdnet.org/power-and-inequality-in-open-science-discourses/

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Hi @tarunima, @juanmagararc, and @thomasmboa,

Sorry about my late response. I’d be happy to help craft a submission. One of the ideas I had is being discussed in this thread, but I also like @tarunima’s idea or maybe write something that talks about the role of the GOSH framework in citizen science?

If we can come up with an idea here, I know a couple of the editors for this special issue and would be happy to contact them and enquire about the idea on our behalf. What do you think?