Inclusiveness and Diversity in Citizen Science

An ‘inclusive citizen science’ practice encourages engagement from all members of society, whatever their social status, sociocultural origin, gender, religious affiliation, literacy level, or age. In this chapter we will first address the question of inclusiveness in citizen science and how this is tackled. We will analyse the current situation of a number of projects and initiatives within the Citizen Science COST Action CA15212 and the Horizon 2020 SwafS programme, examine the data, and discuss the main factors that encourage or hinder inclusiveness. We will offer recommendations for a possible plural participation in citizen science activities and reflect on how research is improved when diverse citizens are used as in-the-field experts. We will demonstrate how research questions can be fine-tuned and how research impacts are enhanced through citizen participation, with a focus on gender representation. Bottlenecks can occur when considering inclusiveness in citizen science, including in data interpretation, tasks that require long-term participation, and tasks that have specific language and intermediation requirements.