Designing Citizen Science Systems

Designing Citizen Science Systems

  • Date: 02.03.2023
  • Scientific research typically involves some kind of research problem discovery activity in order to identify and understand the problem space. Researchers can apply different methods to explore the problem space, for instance, interviews or focus groups. However, these methods are time-consuming, require the knowledge of domain experts, and do not scale well. Especially in discovering socially relevant real-world problems, it can be challenging to reach domain experts. Regarding topics that affect citizens in their everyday lives, they should be considered as the “real-world domain” experts. MyResearchChallenge is a web-based tool following a digital citizen science approach by providing features to explore predefined topics and corresponding challenges along different subtopics. The tool enables citizens to register, collect, discuss, and vote on challenges of different topics. Additionally, the system provides a conversational agent guiding citizens in structuring the problem descriptions in order to collect complete and precise research problem descriptions. The collected problem descriptions are then considered in scientific research projects and serve as a step toward closing the gap between scientific and public perspectives on real-world problems.