@article{Pelacho2025,

title = {Science as a commons: Motivations for continued participation in citizen science projects},

author = {Maite Pelacho and Santos Orejudo and Jesús Clemente-Gallardo},

editor = {Diego Casado-Mansilla,},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0325593},

issn = {1932-6203},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-06-25},

journal = {PLoS One},

volume = {20},

number = {6},

publisher = {Public Library of Science (PLoS)},

abstract = {The study of the commons is a growing field of research that is highly relevant to fostering the sustainability of shared resources, including knowledge resources. Citizen science has great potential to constitute science as a knowledge commons, in which continued participation is essential for the long-term viability of inherently collaborative projects and the strengthening of communities. However, different motivations for participation can significantly influence continued engagement, and, consequently, the sustainability of these projects. This research explores, first, participants’ motivations for joining and continuing projects, as well as the reasons for abandoning them. Secondly, we analyse the influence of various motivations on continuity, with a particular focus on highly committed participants—an aspect hitherto scarcely investigated. Specifically, we examine whether these participants’ motivations are primarily associated with general interests (e.g., resource sustainability) alongside personal interests (e.g., capability building). This approach aligns with the key finding of commons theory, which challenges the idea that rational behaviour implies only self-interest. The analyses of 478 responses to the survey designed for this study reveal that participants who sustain CS projects through continued participation are driven by a combination of personal and general interests. These findings reflect cooperative behaviours characteristic of individuals who create or maintain commons. Therefore, we propose that science can be understood as a commons that can be collaboratively and sustainably managed by multiple, decentralized communities. Consequently, fostering cooperation is essential for the effective management of shared resources, particularly in citizen science projects. Enhancing our understanding of cooperation enables the better and more effective implementation of specific recommendations, such as optimizing communication among all those involved in citizen science projects and fostering awareness of common goals and collective achievements. In turn, this reinforces personal benefits, creating a virtuous circle that further strengthens cooperation and its benefits.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Soacha-Godoy2025,

title = {The Backbone of Participatory Science: Reframing Citizen Observatories as Research Infrastructures},

author = {Karen Soacha-Godoy and Alexandre López-Borrull and Fermín Serrano and Jaume Piera},

doi = {10.3390/su17104608},

issn = {2071-1050},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-05-00},

journal = {Sustainability},

volume = {17},

number = {10},

publisher = {MDPI AG},

abstract = {Citizen observatories (COs) have emerged as essential research infrastructures for participatory science, supporting data collection and community engagement. They enable communities to monitor their environments, actively track indicators aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and contribute valuable data to scientific research and evidence-based, informed policy-making. Despite their growing importance, COs remain conceptually fluid, with varying interpretations across disciplines and contexts. This paper examines the evolution of COs from their origins in the early 2010s to their current multifaceted roles, revealing three key dimensions: descriptively as socio-technical systems, instrumentally as research infrastructures, and normatively as advanced participatory science initiatives. We specifically highlight the critical role of COs as research infrastructures and propose a set of essential functions and characteristics. These functions range from providing technical capabilities for data collection and quality assurance to social dimensions, including community building and governance frameworks. Additionally, our analysis identifies two operational models: tailored COs designed for specific projects and open COs supporting multiple initiatives. Reframing COs as research infrastructures rather than isolated initiatives emphasizes the need for long-term institutional support, shared services, and coordinated policies to ensure their sustainability and maximize their contribution to both scientific knowledge and public participation, ultimately strengthening the foundations of participatory science.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Peiro2024,

title = {Citizen science initiatives for soil literacy},

author = {Alba Peiro and Tanja Mimmo and Claudia Cappello and Francisco Sanz Sanz},

doi = {10.56367/oag-043-11504-02},

issn = {2516-3817},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-07},

volume = {43},

number = {1},

pages = {386--387},

publisher = {Adjacent Digital Politics Ltd},

abstract = {

        Citizen science initiatives for soil literacy

        Alba Peiro and Francisco Sanz from the Ibercivis Foundation, Claudia Cappello and Tanja Mimmo from the Free University of Bolzano, guide us through citizen science initiatives for soil literacy that are integral to the ECHO project, Citizen science projects offer an effective framework for increasing participants’ knowledge in specific scientific fields. They also play a crucial role in reshaping participants’ perspectives on the scientific process and attitudes towards science and environmental issues. To ensure a significant increase in literacy, citizen science initiatives require meticulous design that extends beyond merely involving participants in scientific studies. This involves facilitating interactions with scientists and providing high-quality educational materials (Bonney et al., 2009).

      },

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gonzalo2023,

title = {Collective Intelligence to Find Solutions to the Challenges Posed by the Sustainable Development Goals},

author = {Alejandro Gonzalo and Francisco Sanz-García and Maite Pelacho and Alfonso Tarancón and Alejandro Rivero and Olga Varela and Alicia Moreno},

doi = {10.5334/cstp.587},

issn = {2057-4991},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-06-27},

volume = {8},

number = {1},

publisher = {Ubiquity Press, Ltd.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wagenknecht2021,

title = {EU-Citizen.Science: A Platform for Mainstreaming Citizen Science and Open Science in Europe},

author = {Katherin Wagenknecht and Tim Woods and Francisco García Sanz and Margaret Gold and Anne Bowser and Simone Rüfenacht and Luigi Ceccaroni and Jaume Piera},

doi = {10.1162/dint_a_00085},

issn = {2641-435X},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-02-00},

journal = {Data Intelligence},

volume = {3},

number = {1},

pages = {136--149},

publisher = {China Science Publishing & Media Ltd.},

abstract = { Citizen Science (CS) is a prominent field of application for Open Science (OS), and the two have strong synergies, such as: advocating for the data and metadata generated through science to be made publicly available [ 1 ]; supporting more equitable collaboration between different types of scientists and citizens; and facilitating knowledge transfer to a wider range of audiences [ 2 ]. While primarily targeted at CS, the EU-Citizen. Science platform can also support OS. One of its key functions is to act as a knowledge hub to aggregate, disseminate and promote experience and know-how; for example, by profiling CS projects and collecting tools, resources and training materials relevant to both fields. To do this, the platform has developed an information architecture that incorporates the public participation in scientific research (PPSR)—Common Conceptual Model ① . This model consists of the Project Metadata Model, the Dataset Metadata Model and the Observation Data Model, which were specifically developed for CS initiatives. By implementing these, the platform will strengthen the interoperating arrangements that exist between other, similar platforms (e.g., BioCollect and SciStarter) to ensure that CS and OS continue to grow globally in terms of participants, impact and fields of application. },

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pelacho2020,

title = {Analysis of the evolution and collaboration networks of citizen science scientific publications},

author = {M. Pelacho and G. Ruiz and F. Sanz and A. Tarancón and J. Clemente-Gallardo},

doi = {10.1007/s11192-020-03724-x},

issn = {1588-2861},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-00},

journal = {Scientometrics},

volume = {126},

number = {1},

pages = {225--257},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

abstract = {AbstractThe term citizen science refers to a broad set of practices developed in a growing number of areas of knowledge and characterized by the active citizen participation in some or several stages of the research process. Definitions, classifications and terminology remain open, reflecting that citizen science is an evolving phenomenon, a spectrum of practices whose classification may be useful but never unique or definitive. The aim of this article is to study citizen science publications in journals indexed by WoS, in particular how they have evolved in the last 20 years and the collaboration networks which have been created among the researchers in that time. In principle, the evolution can be analyzed, in a quantitative way, by the usual tools, such as the number of publications, authors, and impact factor of the papers, as well as the set of different research areas including citizen science as an object of study. But as citizen science is a transversal concept which appears in almost all scientific disciplines, this study becomes a multifaceted problem which is only partially modelled with the usual bibliometric magnitudes. It is necessary to consider new tools to parametrize a set of complementary properties. Thus, we address the study of the citizen science expansion and evolution in terms of the properties of the graphs which encode relations between scientists by studying co-authorship and the consequent networks of collaboration. This approach - not used until now in research on citizen science, as far as we know- allows us to analyze the properties of these networks through graph theory, and complement the existing quantitative research. The results obtained lead mainly to: (a) a better understanding of the current state of citizen science in the international academic system-by countries, by areas of knowledge, by interdisciplinary communities-as an increasingly legitimate expanding methodology, and (b) a greater knowledge of collaborative networks and their evolution, within and between research communities, which allows a certain margin of predictability as well as the definition of better cooperation strategies.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Turbé-2019,

title = {Understanding the Citizen Science Landscape for European Environmental Policy: An Assessment and Recommendations},

author = {Anne Turbé and Jorge Barba and Maite Pelacho and Shailendra Mugdal and Lucy D. Robinson and Fermin Serrano-Sanz and Francisco Sanz and Chrysa Tsinaraki and Jose-Miguel Rubio and Sven Schade},

doi = {10.5334/cstp.239},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-12-01},

urldate = {2019-12-01},

journal = {Citizen Science: Theory and Practice},

abstract = {Citizen science is increasingly upheld with the potential to underpin all aspects of the environmental policy process. However, to date, contributions of citizen science to environmental decision-making remain sparse and not well understood. Evidence points to a gap between the potential relevance of citizen science for policy and its actual implementation. We lack a comprehensive assessment of the current impacts of citizen science projects on environmental policy, and an identification of the scientific, engagement, and governance characteristics of projects that facilitate successful contributions to policy. This paper addresses that knowledge gap through identifying the characteristics of citizen science projects that support policy. We present an inventory of 503 citizen science projects with environmental policy relevance, and an in-depth analysis of 45 case examples with quantitative assessment of characteristics of the citizen scientist, scientific, socio-economic, and policy dimensions. Our results demonstrate that citizen science can underpin all steps of the environmental policy process, and that a diversity of approaches can be used to achieve this. However, governmental support, scientific excellence, and NGO-leadership facilitate policy linkages. We discuss the main challenges and opportunities identified by project leaders in linking citizen science and policy and present a set of recommendations for promoting the better integration of citizen science in the different phases of the policy cycle. Central among these are clarifying policy needs, facilitating access to citizen science data, and improving their evaluation and recognition by decision-makers. Publisher's Note: A corrigendum relating to this article has been published and can be found at http://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.308.},

key = {asd},

note = {cuanticables},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{serrano2014white,

title = {White paper on citizen science for Europe},

author = {Fermín Serrano Sanz and Teresa Holocher-Ertl and Barbara Kieslinger and Francisco Sanz García and Cândida G Silva},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Socientize consortium},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Borge-Holthoefer2011,

title = {Structural and Dynamical Patterns on Online Social Networks: The Spanish May 15th Movement as a Case Study},

author = {Javier Borge-Holthoefer and Alejandro Rivero and Iñigo García and Elisa Cauhé and Alfredo Ferrer and Darío Ferrer and David Francos and David Iñiguez and María Pilar Pérez and Gonzalo Ruiz and Francisco Sanz and Fermín Serrano and Cristina Viñas and Alfonso Tarancón and Yamir Moreno},

editor = {Matjaz Perc},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0023883},

issn = {1932-6203},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-08-19},

journal = {PLoS ONE},

volume = {6},

number = {8},

publisher = {Public Library of Science (PLoS)},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{borge2011structural,

title = {Structural and dynamical patterns on online social networks: the spanish may 15th movement as a case study},

author = {Javier Borge-Holthoefer and Alejandro Rivero and Iñigo García and Elisa Cauhé and Alfredo Ferrer and Darío Ferrer and David Francos and David Iniguez and María Pilar Pérez and Gonzalo Ruiz and others},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-01-01},

journal = {PloS one},

volume = {6},

number = {8},

pages = {e23883},

publisher = {Public Library of Science San Francisco, USA},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}