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Highlights
• There has been a paradigm change from a one-way transfer of science
information to a paradigm of exchange that demands adequate
science communication.
• Communication in citizen science projects is key to motivating and
retaining participants and exchanging information.
• Stories can play an important role in translating the abstract a...
Citations
... Stories can depict the immediate context, providing meaning to participants and reflecting their experiences, thereby providing a means to generate, analyse, and pass on actions, experiences, and biographical knowledge for citizen science projects in creative ways (Hecker et al. 2018;Richter et al. 2019). Good stories are memorable, often feature a 'hero' and describe a conflict, have a specific aim, and awaken emotions in your audience (Hecker et al. 2017). This ensures that the generated and shared knowledge is accessible to all, making it a particularly effective tool for hard-to-reach or neglected groups. ...
Citizen science projects rely on public involvement, making a communication and dissemination strategy essential to their success and impact. This needs to include many aspects, such as identifying the audience, selecting the communication channel(s), and establishing the right language to use. Importantly, citizen science projects must expand beyond traditional top-down monologue interactions and embrace two-way dialogue approaches, especially when communicating with project participants. Further, to be effective, communication activities require good planning and dedicated resources. This chapter highlights the importance of communication and dissemination in citizen science; provides examples of successful strategies and identifies the factors that determine success; and describes some of the challenges that can arise and how to overcome these.
We envisage a future research environment where digital data on species interactions are easily accessible and comprehensively cover all species, life stages and habitats. To achieve this goal, we need data from many sources, including the largely untapped potential of citizen science for mobilising and utilising existing information on species interactions. Traditionally volunteers contributing information on the occurrence of species have focused on single‐species observations from within one target taxon. We make recommendations on how to improve the gathering of species interaction data through citizen science, which data should be collected and how it can be motivated. These recommendations include providing feedback in the form of network visualisations, leveraging a wide variety of other data sources and eliciting an emotional connection to the species in question. There are many uses for these data, but in the context of biological invasions, information on species interactions will increase understanding of the effects of invasive alien species on recipient communities and ecosystems. We believe that the inclusion of ecological networks as a concept within citizen science, not only for initiatives focussed on biological invasions but also across other ecological themes, will not only enrich scientific knowledge on species interactions but also deepen the experience and enjoyment of citizens themselves.
