Coercion, Consent, and Participation in Citizen Science

Abstract

Throughout history, everyday people have contributed to science through a myriad of volunteer activities. This early participation required training and often involved mentorship from scientists or senior citizen scientists (or, as they were often called, gentleman scientists). During this learning process, participants learned how they and their data would be used both to advance science, and in some cases, advance the careers of professional collaborators. Modern, online citizen science, allows participation with just a few clicks, and people may participate without understanding what they are contributing to. Too often, they happily see what they are doing as the privilege of painting Tom Sawyer's fence without realizing they are actually being used as merely a means to a scientific end. This paper discusses the ethical dilemmas that plague modern citizen science, including: the issues of informed consent, such as not requiring logins; the issues of coercion inherent in mandatory classroom assignments requiring data submission; and the issues of using people merely as a means to an end that are inherent in technonationalism, and projects that do not provide utility to the users beyond the knowledge they helped. This work is tested within the context of astronomy citizen science.