Update Citizen Scientist Definition

[katblanchette]

@bressler1995 - The OS101 Team received an email from Dr. Marc Kuchner recommending an update of the citizen science definitions. The OS101 Team has reviewed the recommendations and we would like to make the following changes to the content. Thank you!

Citizen Science, Community Science, and Participatory Science are terms used to describe projects where members of the public participate in the scientific process.

• Citizen Science is defined by law as “as a form of open collaboration in which individuals or organizations participate voluntarily in the scientific process in various ways”. Below is additional information regarding NASA's Citizen Science efforts:

  • NASA policy defines citizen science projects as science projects that rely on volunteers.
  • NASA’s citizen science projects are held to the same rigorous standards as any NASA science project.
  • This important ethical practice respects volunteers by helping ensure that their work will result in real contributions to science—ideally published in the scientific literature. You can learn more here about leading a NASA citizen science project.

• Community Science may include projects with or without professional scientists involved.

• Participatory Science is another term that avoids using the word “citizen” to avoid confusion and increase inclusiveness, since participation in citizen science and community science projects generally does not require citizenship in any particular country.

[bressler95tops]

@katblanchette Thanks Katherine, I have addressed this issue in Pull Request #835 and as usual the OS101 developers can see the exact change on the 'files changed' tab on said PR. Let me know when the OS101 devs have been able to implement this change.

[bressler95tops]

@katblanchette It seems that this change did not make it into the MOOC despite being marked complete in the V1 tracking. It seems it may have been grouped in with #783. Next time I will make sure to close the preceding issue / PR so they know which one to use. I will keep this issue open so we can revisit.

[katblanchette]

@bressler95tops - Thank you for catching the information. I will connect with the Developers and report back soon.