What is this blog about?

Citizen science (CS) projects are extremely successful in improving scientific knowledge, both among amateur scientists and inside the scientific community, by creating a collaborative network with the common goal to gather data and answer current research questions. This blog functions as an informative platform for those who are interested in the concept of citizen science, would like to join a citizen science project or seek inspiration to start a project on their own. This work is part of the biodiversity course BIO341 attended at the University of Bergen autumn 2019.
Besides a basic overview on the concept of CS, you will find an introduction to the three projects iNaturalist, eBird, and Zooniverse that actively contribute to biodiversity research. CS is used not only for biological sciences but also covers many other research fields (see Zooniverse). However, the content of this blog is restricted to biodiversity research only. In addition to the three major projects, a detailed presentation of the project Sea Slugs of Southern Norway, which I am currently involved in through my master thesis, is given. Furthermore, I present two research goals that have been accomplished using the power of the general public and give an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses. Finally, valuable recommendations on how to establish a CS project with focus on data collection and research design are presented.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog and get inspired by this cooperative field of research. I would be pleased if you leave some comments and evaluations in the given windows below each post.
Thank you!