The term Citizen Science means different things to different people, a reflection of the diversity of contexts in which it is used. The use of citizens from the community to perform scientific research has become increasingly popular in academic circles, as it can greatly increase the power of data collection, provide local support for research, save on costs and act as a conduit for influencing legislation. A major hurdle, however, has been to convince academics that citizen-collected data is of equal quality as data collected by paid field assistants.

Results/Conclusions  

In this symposium, we will provide a brief overview of the history and context of modern Citizen Science in academia. We will highlight case studies from around the world that are performed on different geographic scales from international to regional to community-based. We will discuss the use of technology, methodology, and data validity when working with diverse sets of community scientists. The symposium will conclude with a forum for discussing the future role of Citizen Science, through an analysis of the benefits and drawbacks to scientists, citizens and society as a whole.