Using untrained observers in scientific research is an advantage due to their personal motivation to contribute to solving questions of importance to science. As mentioned in the introductory section, amateurs are often considered as experts in their field since they have spent much of their time on observing and documenting biological interactions and species occurrences. When given the chance to contribute to a project, many citizen scientists are eager to share their knowledge and observations with others and become motivated to continue their work and collaborate with others. The downside of this could be that their initial determination for performance might lessen and making them stay active might lead to challenges. The fact that many of the volunteers are not familiar with scientific sampling procedures can be considered as both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, they do not need to adapt to new routines but rather learn a new way of documenting the world around them. On the other hand, they have no experience in scientific data collection and might leave gaps that are of crucial importance when applying the data in later research. Here, the problem of biased data needs to be taken into consideration, resulting from disproportionate data records. For example, a volunteer might not want to sample specimens of a favorite animal or is not aware of that recordings of both absence and presence of a species can be as equally valuable information. Underestimating the importance of correct and precise documentation, especially when sampling large amounts of repetitive data, can lead to incomplete material that might be of no use in further scientific research.
The post on data collection and research design might give you a few guidelines on how to avoid key mistakes when implementing citizen science in your research or are about to become a citizen scientist yourself.
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