ABOUT THE PROJECT
CitSci Sort has a dual goal: Producing a research dataset and being a learning tool.
CitSci Sort is a community-driven classification tool developed by the Ibercivis Foundation in the context of the RIECS-Concept initiative — Towards a Pan-European Research Infrastructure for Excellent Citizen Science —, a 36-month Horizon Europe project bringing together 13 partners from 8 countries, with ECSA as scientific coordinator.
PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
Project type: Global
Duration: 2026 – 2030
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Its purpose is to build a systematically categorised corpus of peer-reviewed scientific abstracts on citizen science (CS) — one that did not previously exist with a shared, transparent classification scheme. The corpus is drawn from publications identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science database, accessed via the Universidad de Zaragoza’s institutional licence.
How does the classification work?
- Step 1 — First-level Dichotomy
The first question is fundamental: does this paper use citizen science as a method to produce knowledge, or does it study citizen science as an object of research? Each abstract is assigned to one of three mutually exclusive categories: Scientific Findings (CS as method), Meta-research (CS as subject of study), or Not Sure.
- Step 2 — Meta-research Aspects Classification (Only for Meta-research papers)
One or more aspects are selected to capture which specific dimension the paper analyses: methodology & design, data quality & validation, impact & outcomes, participation & engagement, ethics & legal issues, theory & framework, or technology & platforms. This scheme is grounded in Ioannidis et al. (2015) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021).
- Step 3 — Infrastructure Classification (For all papers)
Every abstract is also assessed for whether it mentions specific CS infrastructures — platforms, mobile apps, data-management tools, AI systems, or any other technology that enables or supports the described CS project. This step builds, directly from the published literature, a verified registry of CS infrastructures that RIECS-Concept needs to design the future pan-European research infrastructure.
HOW TO TAKE PART?
Register at https://citscisort.ibercivis.es/ and start classifying.
You do not need to be a researcher or a citizen science expert. The platform is designed so that anyone can classify abstracts by following the guidance provided. What matters most is reading carefully and applying the criteria consistently.
Each abstract is reviewed by multiple contributors, so the goal is not individual perfection but collective consistency. Disagreements are valuable — they help the research team identify the most ambiguous cases. Contributors may choose to remain fully anonymous or request public recognition in project reports, strictly according to their express consent.
