Scaling Up: Citizen Science Engagement and Impacts Beyond the Individual
Research designs that strategically engage members of the public, frequently referred to as public engagement in science or citizen science, are becoming increasingly common. These designs vary in terms of purpose and stage of research, but all leverage the involvement of individuals external to the research team. As the application of public engagement in science expands to address increasingly complex social problems, (e.g. community health) there is an opportunity to consider higher-order engagement beyond that of individual members of a community. Researchers who work in these complex domains have an opportunity to implement citizen science projects that intersect with organizational and community efforts already occuring in the same problem domain.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to foster public engagement in science. One project led by EPA, Smoke Sense, aims to reduce the public health burden of wildland fire smoke by sharing information on air quality, smoke, and health messaging and by collecting individual reports of smoke exposure and concurrent health symptoms. Smoke Sense is also generating interest among organizations that are also working in this problem domain at the local, state, national, and tribal levels. This led us to ask: what would motivate members of organizations to engage in a citizen science project like Smoke Sense, and how do they envision that engagement could improve public health?
To explore these questions, we collected data through interviews with individuals who were engaged in the Smoke Sense pilot season through their work at local, state, and tribal environmental and health agencies in the western U.S. In these interviews, we explored what motivated these individuals’ engagement in Smoke Sense and ways they envision Smoke Sense might be used in this problem domain. We conducted an inductive, thematic analysis of the interview transcripts to inform an initial understanding of how citizen science efforts at the federal level can support change.
We learned these individuals’ motivations stem from their experiences and challenges with smoke in their different roles (e.g. personally, professionally, and as a community member). Understanding those experiences and needs – particularly related to their professional responsibilities communicating with their stakeholders – is critical to garnering interest in and leveraging the project to advance efforts in this complex social issue. Respondents envisioned leveraging both the app itself and the data generated by individuals in their region to enhance and support their existing outreach and communication efforts related to smoke. Thus, citizen science projects that aim to address issues in complex problem domains should be designed to complement partner organizations and their work. Findings from these interviews are being used to advance the Smoke Sense initiative as well as the academic conversation on citizen science in complex problem domains.