Policy is an important but often overlooked component of citizen science projects. There are operational data policy considerations, such as user agreements, terms of use, and privacy. There are laws and regulations that may either encourage or inhibit government use of citizen science data. In the United States, these include the U.S. Paperwork Reduction Action, U.S. Data Quality Act, and U.S. Anti-Deficiency Act. And, there is the potential impact of citizen science on public policy objectives. This presentation will touch on each of these three areas. Presented by Lea Shanley and Anne Bowser, Commons Lab, Wilson Center. http://CommonsLab.wilsoncenter.org

1. CITIZEN SCIENCE
Lea Shanley and Anne Bowser
Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Presented at the Citizen Cyberscience Summit
20-22 February 2014
WHAT’S POLICY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

2. What is Citizen Science?
§ Working Definition: A form of collaboration where
members of the public participate in scientific
research to meet real world problems.
§ Also defined, albeit less commonly, as:
- the engagement of nonscientists in true
decision-making about policy issues that have
technical or scientific components.

3. What is policy?
§ Working Definition: “A set of explicit or implicit
principles, norms, rules, and decision making
produres around which actor expectations
converge.” (Jackson et al 2014)
§ This may include, for example:
- Public policy: A system of laws, regulations,
government actions, and funding priorities
promulgated by a government to address social or
economic issues.
- Data policy: “A set of broad, high level principles that
form the guiding framework in which data
management can operate.” (OECD 2002)

4. Policy-Relevant Citizen Science

5. Value for evaluating
conservation policy
§ “Annual State of the
Birds” report uses
modeled data based
on checklists
submitted to eBird
§ Demonstrates a link
between private land
conservation
incentives and
species distribution
Policy-Relevant Citizen Science

6. Value for environmental
health and justice
Policy-Relevant Citizen Science
§ Volunteers test water
& air quality, helping to
detect and restore
problem sites.
§ Clean Air Coalition of
Western New York
monitoring efforts led
to 86% reduction in
atmospheric benzene.

7. Value for coastal
management
Policy-Relevant Citizen Science
§ UW’s Coastal
Observation and
Seabird Survey Team
(COASST) monitors
local marine
resources and
ecosystem health
§ Data collected to
legal standard so it
can be used as
evidence in court

8. Value for broadband
accessibility
Policy-Relevant Citizen Science
§ US FCC
crowdsourced
connectivity to create
the National
Broadband Map
§ NBM used to hold
companies
accountable, assess
digital divide, and
direct resources to
gaps

9. Policy Relevance vs Impact
§ Citizen science can inform policy, but
policymakers may or may not use this
information, and may or may not use it wisely.
§ Citizen science is but one ingredient in policy
making => Policy. Politics. Procedure.
§ Connect bottom up and top down.

10. Policy Relevant to Citizen Science

11. Data Policies
User Agreement
§ Clickwrap (explicit)
§ Browserwrap
(implicit)
Privacy Policy
§ Voluntary data
(i.e., PII)
§ Involuntary data
(i.e., cookies)
§ Security
Legal Policies
§ Legal compliance
§ Other compliance
(i.e., IRB)
§ Liability disclaimer
Terms of Use
§ Data ownership/IP
§ Data use
Source: Bowser et al., 2013. DataOne Policy Primer
What is included in data policies?

12. Data Policies
policies
Other
Policies
Ethics
Law
How are data policies formed?
Law and Regulations
§ Policies demonstrate legal
compliance
Ethics
§ Formal (IRB) and informal
Other Policies
§ Standards
§ Best practices

13. Who sets data policy?
Intermediaries Federal agenciesProjects
It depends…
Projects receiving
federal support set
their own policies
Projects run through
intermediaries use
intermediary policies
Projects run through
agencies use agency
policies

14. What are the implications?
Intermediaries Federal agenciesProjects
It depends…
• Level of complexity
determined by
resources
• Some shortcuts:
Creative Commons
• Need a checklist of
key concerns
• Serious investments
in response to strong
legal concerns
• Some project-
specific policies
• Need deep analysis
of federal constraints
• Some legal
concerns
• TOU more flexible
than privacy
policies
• Need deeper
information

15. § Liability / risk mitigation
§ Privacy Act
§ Cybersecurity
§ Paperwork Reduction Act
§ Data Quality Act
§ Anti-Deficiency Act
§ Procurement regulations
§ Data ownership and licensing
§ Freedom of Information/Data access
§ Records management and retention
US Legal and Policy Hurdles

16. “Public participation in scientific
research, one type of crowdsourcing
known as ‘citizen science,’ allows the
public to make critical contributions to
the fields of science, technology,
engineering, and math by collecting,
analyzing, and sharing a wide range
of data.”
Open Government National Action Plan
US commitment to citizen
science

17. Open Government National Action Plan
US commitment to
citizen science
§ Create an Open
Innovation Toolkit
§ New Incentive Prizes
and Challenges on
Challenge.gov
§ Increased
Crowdsourcing and
Citizen Science
Agency Programs

18. Follow Us
CommonsLab.wilsoncenter.org
/CommonsLab
@STIPCommonsLab
bit.ly/CommonsLabVideos
bit.ly/CommonsLabReports
Lea.Shanley@wilsoncenter.org
Anne.Bowser@wilsoncenter.og

19. Term Definition
Crowdmapping
Also called Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), a process
where public volunteers create, assemble, and distribute
geographic knowledge
Crowdsourcing
A process where individuals or roganizations solicit contributions
from a large group of individuals (“the crowd”) or, in some cases,
a bounded group of trusted individuals or experts
Do-it-yourself (DIY)
A method of creating, modifying, or repairing something without
the aid of professional experts
Hackathon
A model of mass collaboration where volunteer software
developers create new technologies such as mobile applications,
often for a prize or other reward
Mass Collaboration
A process where individual efforts are combined to create a single
solution to a shared problem or goal
Open Data
The idea that data and other types of knowledge should be
shared by governments, organizations, and the public “in a way
that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable”
Open Innovation
A paradigm which suggests that organizations can and should
solicit contributions from external volunteers
Open Science
A solicitation to share the process or results of scientific inquiry
with a broad community Source: Bowser & Shanley, 2013