S07 - Citizen Science and Biodiversity Informatics for Natural History Collections and Field Observations

Unsolicited contributions considered? Yes

Abstract

Citizen scientists have been strong contributors to historical and contemporary biodiversity databanks, with contributions ranging from monitoring and observations to annotations and classifications. Citizen scientist-generated data, however, bring additional concerns to the usual biodiversity data considerations. In this symposium, we highlight examples of how practitioners design, implement, and analyze citizen science projects to ensure that, for example, common names are matched with scientific names, camera trap images are accurately classified, and citizen science observational data are vetted to ensure data quality. We also welcome more technical presentations that describe the development of the citizen science PPSR (Public Participation in Scientific Research) core, implement procedures to ensure data quality, or explore new advances in the field of citizen science such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.