Global project · Research on citizen science
CitSci Sort
Classify scientific publications on citizen science
About the project
CitSci Sort has a twofold purpose: to produce a research dataset and to serve as a learning tool.
CitSci Sort is a community classification tool developed by Fundación Ibercivis as part of the RIECS-Concept initiative (Towards a Pan-European Research Infrastructure for Excellent Citizen Science), a 36-month Horizon Europe project that brings together 13 partners from 8 countries, with ECSA as scientific coordinator.
Project objectives
Its aim is to build a systematically classified corpus of scientific abstracts on citizen science (CS), something that did not previously exist with a shared, transparent scheme. The abstracts come from peer-reviewed publications identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science database, accessed through the University of Zaragoza’s institutional licence.
How does the classification work?
- Step 1: First-level split
The first question is the key one: does this article use citizen science as a method to produce knowledge, or does it study citizen science as a subject of research? Each abstract is assigned to one of three categories: Scientific Findings (CS as a method), Meta-research (CS as a subject of study) or Not Sure.
- Step 2: Classifying meta-research aspects (Meta-research articles only)
Choose one or more aspects that capture the dimension the article analyses: methodology and design, data quality, impact and outcomes, participation, ethics and legal aspects, theory and conceptual frameworks, or technology and platforms. The scheme is based on the pillars set out by Ioannidis et al. (2015) and on the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021).
- Step 3: Classifying infrastructures (All articles)
Assess whether the abstract mentions platforms, apps, data management tools, AI systems or other technologies that support the CS project described. This step builds a verified register of CS infrastructures directly from the published literature: information that RIECS-Concept needs to design the future pan-European infrastructure.
How can I take part?
You don’t need to be a researcher or a citizen science expert. The platform is designed so that anyone can classify abstracts by following the guidelines provided. What matters most is reading carefully and applying the criteria consistently.
Each abstract is reviewed by several people, so the goal is not individual perfection but collective consistency. Disagreements are valuable: they help the team spot the most ambiguous cases. Contributors can remain completely anonymous or ask to be publicly acknowledged in the project’s reports, always subject to their explicit consent.
Project details
Type of project
Global
Duration
2026 – 2030
Area
Citizen science research
