research-article

Improving Productivity in Citizen Science through Controlled Intervention

Authors:

Ya'akov (Kobi) Gal,

Robert J. Simpson,

Victoria Victoria Homsy,

Mark Hartswood,

Marina JirotkaAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '15 Companion: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

Pages 331 - 337

https://doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2743051

Published: 18 May 2015 Publication History

Abstract

The majority of volunteers participating in citizen science projects perform only a few tasks each before leaving the system. We designed an intervention strategy to reduce disengagement in 16 different citizen science projects. Targeted users who had left the system received emails that directly addressed motivational factors that affect their engagement. Results show that participants receiving the emails were significantly more likely to return to productive activity when compared to a control group.

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Cited By

Vanden Berghen BVanermen IVranken L(2025)Testing four design interventions for sustained participation in an agricultural citizen science projectEnvironmental Science & Policy10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981163(103981)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981
Vanden Berghen BVanermen IVranken L(2024)Citizen scientists: Unveiling motivations and characteristics influencing initial and sustained participation in an agricultural projectPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.030310319:5(e0303103)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303103
Veeckman CClaes SVan Audenhove Lvan der Graaf S(2023)A framework for making citizen science inclusive with storytelling methodsFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.121121311Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1211213
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Index Terms

Improving Productivity in Citizen Science through Controlled Intervention
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

WWW '15 Companion: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web

May 2015

1602 pages

ISBN:9781450334730

DOI:10.1145/2740908

General Chairs:
Aldo Gangemi
National Research Council, Italy & Paris 13 University-CNRS, France
,
Stefano Leonardi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
,
Alessandro Panconesi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Copyright © 2015 Copyright is held by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).

Sponsors

IW3C2: International World Wide Web Conference Committee

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SIGWEB: ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 18 May 2015

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Funding Sources

UK. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
EU FP7 FET SmartSociety project

Conference

WWW '15

Sponsor:

IW3C2

WWW '15: 24th International World Wide Web Conference

May 18 - 22, 2015

Florence, Italy

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,899 of 8,196 submissions, 23%

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Cited By

Vanden Berghen BVanermen IVranken L(2025)Testing four design interventions for sustained participation in an agricultural citizen science projectEnvironmental Science & Policy10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981163(103981)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981
Vanden Berghen BVanermen IVranken L(2024)Citizen scientists: Unveiling motivations and characteristics influencing initial and sustained participation in an agricultural projectPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.030310319:5(e0303103)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303103
Veeckman CClaes SVan Audenhove Lvan der Graaf S(2023)A framework for making citizen science inclusive with storytelling methodsFrontiers in Environmental Science10.3389/fenvs.2023.121121311Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1211213
Pradhan AGeorge RDewan S(2023)Documenting butterflies with the help of citizen science in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya, IndiaJournal of Threatened Taxa10.11609/jott.8138.15.3.22771-2279015:3(22771-22790)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8138.15.3.22771-22790
Gal YSegal AKamar EHorvitz ELintott CWalmsley M(2022)A new Workflow for Human-AI Collaboration in Citizen ScienceProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good10.1145/3524458.3547243(89-95)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524458.3547243
Sultan ASegal AShani GGal Y(2022)Addressing Popularity Bias in Citizen ScienceProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good10.1145/3524458.3547229(17-23)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524458.3547229
Ben Zaken DSegal ACavalier DShani GGal KBellogin ABoratto LSantos OArdissono LKnijnenburg B(2022)Generating Recommendations with Post-Hoc Explanations for Citizen ScienceProceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization10.1145/3503252.3531290(69-78)Online publication date: 4-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3503252.3531290
Kaplan Mintz KArazy OMalkinson D(2022)Multiple forms of engagement and motivation in ecological citizen scienceEnvironmental Education Research10.1080/13504622.2022.212018629:1(27-44)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2120186
Jäckel DMortega KDarwin SBrockmeyer USturm ULasseck MMoczek NLehmann GVoigt-Heucke S(2022)Community engagement and data quality: best practices and lessons learned from a citizen science project on birdsongJournal of Ornithology10.1007/s10336-022-02018-8164:1(233-244)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-02018-8
Obiorah MHammerman JRother BGranger WWest HHorn MTrouille LKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)U!Scientist: Designing for People-Powered Research in MuseumsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445334(1-14)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
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