Do project owner attitudes constrain citizen science? Enabling the shift from silo to holistic volunteer management
Part of the Citizen Science Association Conference, March 13-17, 2019. RCC 302C 11am Do project owner attitudes constrain citizen science? Enabling the shift from silo to holistic volunteer management » Citizen science projects are often managed in isolation. We refer to this as the silo approach. A holistic approach involves managing volunteers collectively, across projects. There is evidence that the holistic approach may benefit volunteer learning and a project’s scientific goals. We investigated a potential impediment to holistic management by examining project owner perceptions on SciStarter, an online repository of citizen science projects. We found a strong culture of silo management for projects and limited evidence for holistic management styles. Our next research priority is to investigate whether a shift in management leads to higher volunteer sustainability for citizen science. Maria Sharova, Lincoln Larson, Caren Cooper