A niche of their own: variations of information practices in biodiversity citizen science
| Date | 09 December 2021 |
| Pages | 248-265 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2021-0146 |
| Published date | 09 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Björn Ekström |
A niche of their own: variations of
information practices in
biodiversity citizen science
Bj€
orn Ekstr€
om
Swedish School of Library and Information Science, Bor
as, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –Information practices become highly complex in biodiversity citizen science projects due to the
projects’large scale, distributed setting and vast inclusion of participants. This study aims to contribute to
knowledge concerning what variations of information practices can be found in biodiversity citizen science and
what these practices may mean for the overall collaborative biodiversity data production in such projects.
Design/methodology/approach –Fifteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with participants
engaged with the Swedish biodiversity citizen science information system Artportalen. The empirical data
were analysed through a practice-theoretical lens investigating information practices in general and variations
of practices in particular.
Findings –The analysis shows that the nexus of biodiversity citizen science information practices consists of
observing, identifying, reporting, collecting, curating and validating species as well as decision-making.
Information practices vary depending on participants’technical know-how; knowledge production and
learning; and preservation motivations. The study also found that reporting tools and field guides are
significant for the formation of information practices. Competition was found to provide data quantity and
knowledge growth but may inflict data bias. Finally, a discrepancy between practices of validating and
decision-making have been noted, which could be mitigated by involving intermediary participants for mutual
understandings of data.
Originality/value –The study places an empirically grounded information practice-theoretical perspective
on citizen science participation, extending previous research seeking to model participant activities.
Furthermore, the study nuances previous practice-oriented perspectives on citizen science by emphasising
variations of practices.
Keywords Citizen science, Informationpractices, Practice theory, Variation, Biodiversity, Information science
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Citizen science allows the general public to engage in scientific conduct through data
production and analysis, interpretation of results and research question development (cf.
Strasser et al., 2019;Haklay, 2018;Kasperowski et al., 2017;Kullenberg and Kasperowski,
2016;Wiggins and Crowston, 2011). Previous studies have found that active participants in
citizen science projects bring in data for analysis, conduct the majority of work and discuss
issues with less active participants (Rohden et al., 2019). Moreover, rooted in Science and
technology studies (STS) theories on learning (cf. Sørensen, 2009), citizen science projects
have been found to involve various forms of knowledge including imitation of tested
JD
78,7
248
©Bj
€
orn Ekstr€
om. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full
attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://
creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The author would like to thank the participants of the study for their time and effort and his
supervisors Professor Ola Pilerot and Senior Lecturer Veronica Johansson at the University of Bor
as,
Sweden, for valuable feedback. The author would also like to thank Senior Lecturer Rachel Pierce at the
University of Bor
as, Sweden, for proof-reading participant quotations.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 30 July 2021
Revised 28 October 2021
Accepted 31 October 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 7, 2022
pp. 248-265
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-07-2021-0146
knowledge, consensus-building and implementation of prior knowledge (Mugar et al., 2015;
see also Jackson et al., 2020). Projects often rely on large-scale information systems providing
arenas for participants for engaging with project objectives in line with their own knowledge
and interests, which can be expanded by continuous participation.
In the case of biodiversity citizen science projects, voluntary participants engage in
collaboratively monitoring the flora and fauna of geographical regions. Data are used to
understand and predict natural trends and for preventing environmental issues (cf. Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, n.d.a). Participation in these settings arguably become
more diversified than in single-objective citizen science projects as a multitude of participants
with varying degrees of knowledge bases, experiences, interests and motivations are
gathered in the vicinity of the very same information system. Distributed, large-scale
research projects arguably become complex due to their vast inclusion of participants;
information practices shift depending on the discipline and contextual factors (e.g. Pilerot,
2016;Talja and Maula, 2003). As proposed in prior research on participatory biodiversity
projects, it has been suggested that notions of participants and the citizen in citizen science
can be expanded through “an increased sensitivity to the range of practices and knowledge
embodied within these different domains”(Ellis and Waterton, 2004, p. 95). Therefore, there is
a need for empirically grounded studies of how variations of information practices unfold and
what these variations mean for common objectives of producing data (cf. Hui, 2017). The
present study is a contribution to this area.
The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge concerning what variations of
information practices can be found in biodiversity citizen science and what these practices
may mean for the overall collaborative biodiversity data production in such projects. This is
accomplished through a practice-oriented empirical study of participants active in the
Swedish biodiversity species observation system Artportalen, which encompasses a range of
knowledge interests, backgrounds and motivations for participation. The study focusses on
the participants’information practices through Artportalen and how these vary by
addressing the following research questions:
(1) How do information practices vary in relation to the shared biodiversity citizen
science information system?
(2) What do these variations mean for collective biodiversity data production?
The next section presents a literature review of related research, which is followed by a
description of the research setting. The theoretical framework and the method used are then
accounted for. The results of the study are then presented. The paper ends with a concluding
discussion.
Literature review
Peer production of knowledge comprises a recurring area of investigation both in library and
information science and in citizen science research. Library and information science research
have been occupied with exploring scholarly information practices through material aspects
(Pilerot et al., 2017), reading practices in scholarly work (Late et al., 2019) and co-production of
knowledge (Lanoue, 2020). Citizen science research has been particularly engaged with
understanding modes of participation and typologies of citizen scientists (e.g. Peter et al.,
2021;Eitzel et al., 2017;Haklay, 2013). The connection and demarcation of these strands of
research, presented in what follows, are motivated by placing the study in a library and
information science practice-oriented research continuum and framing the study in relation
to previous research on varying participation in citizen science.
Scholarly information practices are a longstanding research interest in library and
information science (Palmer and Cragin, 2008). Originating from the practice turn in social
A niche of their
own
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