Gruß & Kuss is a Citizen Science project. But what does that mean anyway?
Citizen Science simply means that all interested citizens can actively participate in research processes and in science under the guidance of scientists.
All German Citizen Science projects are represented on the platform of Bürger schaffen Wissen (“Citizens create knowledge”), including Gruß & Kuss.
The definition of Citizen Science
An internationally uniform definition of Citizen Science does not yet exist. The Green Book Citizen Science Strategy for Germany 2020, which presents the understanding of Citizen Science as well as the goals and challenges, defines the term as follows:
Citizen Science describes the participation of people in scientific processes who are not institutionally bound in this field of science. Involvement can range from short-term data collection to intensive use of free time to delve into a research topic with scientists and/or other volunteers. Although many volunteer researchers have had academic training, this is not a prerequisite for participation in research projects. However, it is important to adhere to scientific standards, which include, above all, transparency with regard to the methodology of data collection and public discussion of the results.
Green Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany, p. 13, emphasis and translation by LBA.
Quality assurance in Citizen Science
In order to “adhere to scientific standards” in citizen science projects, the Platform for and Representation of Citizen Science specifies appropriate standards and quality criteria.
The demand for scientific quality is continuously reflected, further developed, and discussed in exchange with the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). As an orientation for quality assurance, the 10 principles of Citizen Science (2015) were defined from the WG “Exchange of Practical Experience and Capacity Development”, which can be flexibly adapted to a wide variety of projects and disciplines.