Zooniverse hosts several dozen citizen science projects. Each project allows people to participate in scientific research by doing a simple online task.
The research projects on Zooniverse all require large amounts of visual data analysis that can be done more accurately by people than by computers. The tasks are broken down into very small steps that anyone can learn quickly. Within a few minutes, you’re on your way analysing astronomy or biology images.
This coffee break, do a Zooniverse project
To get a sense of how quickly citizen scientists can get started analysing research data, choose one of the open projects on Zooniverse, and join in.
Have a look at the projects that were recently launched or the ones that need the most help. To get the most out of this activity, pick a project that is unrelated to your own research.
You don’t have to create an account to participate, but an account is useful if you want to see how you’re doing compared to others or participate in forum discussions.
What have you learned?
As you experienced when you went through this activity, you were able to take part without knowing the full scientific details of the project. Are there any elements in your own research analysis process that you can break down into small interactive components?
It doesn’t always have to lead to a massive citizen science project where people help you analyse your data. Creating an interactive research element can also be useful for small demonstrations, public talks, or outreach events.
But if your research could benefit from mass online image classification, Zooniverse has a Project Builder where you can create your own online citizen science project.
Read more:
- Here’s how citizen scientists assisted with the disaster response in the Caribbean, Rebekah Yore, The Conversation
- Henry Sauermann & Chiara Franzoni. Crowd science user contribution patterns and their implications, PNAS (2015), 112 (3) 679-684. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1408907112
- Fiona M. Jones et al. Time-lapse imagery and volunteer classifications from the Zooniverse Penguin Watch project, Scientific Data (2018). DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2018.124