Working group for quality criteria

The working group for quality criteria was established to create criteria for the platform that are as objective, traceable and, above all, publicly visible as possible.

Head: Florian Heigl and Daniel Dörler, BOKU University

At the annual platform meeting of Österreich forscht on 1 March 2017, the partners decided to set up a working group on quality criteria for citizen science projects. This became necessary because, due to new funding programmes and the level of awareness of citizen science that has been achieved in the meantime, more and more projects consider themselves as citizen science, which also requested to be included in Österreich forscht. Up to this point, projects were examined by the platform coordinators for consistency with the different definitions of citizen science before they were accepted. In order to create objective, comprehensible and, above all, transparent criteria for the future, the working group for quality criteria was founded. The working group consists of project leaders and partners of Österreich forscht and is headed by Florian Heigl and Daniel Dörler.

Goals

1. Development of binding quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht - successfully completed
   At the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2018, the finalised quality criteria were presented. From March 2017 to February 2018, a total of 20 criteria were created to which all projects on Österreich forscht had to adapt. You can read about how this process was designed and what impact it had on Österreich forscht in an article in Citizen Science:Theory and Practice.
2. Continuous assessment of incoming project listings on Österreich forscht - ongoing
   After the criteria were finalised, the listing process was described transparently on Österreich forscht. The working group has set itself the goal of continuously reviewing the incoming applications for listing and providing assistance in fulfilling the criteria. The aim is to conduct a dialogue with the project leaders, which will lead to a positive result.
3. Creation of assistance and development of a mentoring network on Österreich forscht - ongoing
   In order to prevent misunderstandings in the interpretation of the criteria and to make the listing process as simple as possible, assistance (e.g. FAQs) should be developed. In addition, a mentoring network is to be created in Austria, in which experienced project leaders as well as AG members will support new projects in fulfilling the criteria.

Mentoring programme

In order to facilitate the implementation of the quality criteria in one's own project, a mentoring programme has been launched. The people listed in the mentoring programme are happy to provide support with questions about the quality criteria and citizen science in general. They have experience in the implementation of the criteria and were partly involved in the formulation of the criteria themselves. If you would like to list a project on Österreich forscht and receive support, please write to a mentor who best fits your questions.

Publications of the working group for quality criteria

• You can download the quality criteria in German and English, as well as the corresponding questionnaire in German and English.
• You can find a blogpost on the quality criteria in the Nature scientific journal from 8 November 2017.
• You can find a blogpost on our article on the quality criteria in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) scientific journal from 23 April 2019. This also includes a Letter to the Editor by Auerbach et al., as well as our reply by Heigl et al.
• You can find our article on the development process of the criteria in Citizen Science:Theory and Practice.

More links

Quality criteria for citizen science projects at the University of Münster

Criteria for Citizen Science Projects at the Citizen Science Center of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

If you have any questions about the quality criteria, please feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..