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Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species
Citizen science is an increasingly popular way of engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data. Despite this, data quality remains a concern and there is little published evidence about the accuracy of records generated by citizen scientists. Here we compare data generated by two British...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6590798/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31233521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218614 |
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author | Falk, Steven Foster, Gemma Comont, Richard Conroy, Judith Bostock, Helen Salisbury, Andrew Kilbey, Dave Bennett, James Smith, Barbara |
author_facet | Falk, Steven Foster, Gemma Comont, Richard Conroy, Judith Bostock, Helen Salisbury, Andrew Kilbey, Dave Bennett, James Smith, Barbara |
author_sort | Falk, Steven |
collection | PubMed |
description | Citizen science is an increasingly popular way of engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data. Despite this, data quality remains a concern and there is little published evidence about the accuracy of records generated by citizen scientists. Here we compare data generated by two British citizen science projects, Blooms for Bees and BeeWatch, to determine the ability of volunteer recorders to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species. We assessed recorders’ identification ability in two ways–as recorder accuracy (the proportion of expert-verified records correctly identified by recorders) and recorder success (the proportion of recorder-submitted identifications confirmed correct by verifiers). Recorder identification ability was low (<50% accuracy; <60% success), despite access to project specific bumblebee identification materials. Identification ability varied significantly depending on bumblebee species, with recorders most able to correctly identify species with distinct appearances. Blooms for Bees recorders (largely recruited from the gardening community) were markedly less able to identify bumblebees than BeeWatch recorders (largely individuals with a more specific interest in bumblebees). Within both projects, recorders demonstrated an improvement in identification ability over time. Here we demonstrate and quantify the essential role of expert verification within citizen science projects, and highlight where resources could be strengthened to improve recorder ability. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6590798 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65907982019-07-05 Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species Falk, Steven Foster, Gemma Comont, Richard Conroy, Judith Bostock, Helen Salisbury, Andrew Kilbey, Dave Bennett, James Smith, Barbara PLoS One Research Article Citizen science is an increasingly popular way of engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data. Despite this, data quality remains a concern and there is little published evidence about the accuracy of records generated by citizen scientists. Here we compare data generated by two British citizen science projects, Blooms for Bees and BeeWatch, to determine the ability of volunteer recorders to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species. We assessed recorders’ identification ability in two ways–as recorder accuracy (the proportion of expert-verified records correctly identified by recorders) and recorder success (the proportion of recorder-submitted identifications confirmed correct by verifiers). Recorder identification ability was low (<50% accuracy; <60% success), despite access to project specific bumblebee identification materials. Identification ability varied significantly depending on bumblebee species, with recorders most able to correctly identify species with distinct appearances. Blooms for Bees recorders (largely recruited from the gardening community) were markedly less able to identify bumblebees than BeeWatch recorders (largely individuals with a more specific interest in bumblebees). Within both projects, recorders demonstrated an improvement in identification ability over time. Here we demonstrate and quantify the essential role of expert verification within citizen science projects, and highlight where resources could be strengthened to improve recorder ability. Public Library of Science 2019-06-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6590798/ /pubmed/31233521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218614 Text en © 2019 Falk et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Falk, Steven Foster, Gemma Comont, Richard Conroy, Judith Bostock, Helen Salisbury, Andrew Kilbey, Dave Bennett, James Smith, Barbara Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title | Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title_full | Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title_fullStr | Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title_short | Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species |
title_sort | evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (bombus) species |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6590798/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31233521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218614 |
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