Citizen science and the professional-amateur divide: lessons from differing online practices

Dowthwaite, Liz; Sprinks, James

Abstract

Online citizen science platforms increasingly provide types of infrastructural support previously only available to organisationally-based professional scientists. Other practices, such as creative arts, also exploit the freedom and accessibility afforded by the World Wide Web to shift the professional-amateur relationship. This paper compares communities from these two areas to show that disparate practices can learn from each other to better understand their users and their technology needs. Three major areas are discussed: mutual acknowledgement, infrastructural support, and platform specialisation. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of differing practices, and lessons that can be learnt for online citizen science platforms.

Citation

Dowthwaite, L., & Sprinks, J. (2019). Citizen science and the professional-amateur divide: lessons from differing online practices. JCOM: Journal of Science Communication, 18(01), Article A06. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18010206

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 14, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 17, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 17, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 31, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Science Communication
• Print ISSN: 1824-2049
• Electronic ISSN: 1824-2049
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 01
• Article Number: A06
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18010206
• Keywords: Communication; Citizen science; Public engagement with science and technology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1507502
• Publisher URL: https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/18/01/JCOM_1801_2019_A06