Participant retention in a continental-scale citizen science project increases with the diversity of species detected

Abstract Sustaining the efforts of volunteers is a challenge facing citizen science programs. Research on volunteer management shows that a diversity of factors may be correlated with sustained volunteerism. In the present article, we explore retention of participants in a large-scale citizen scienc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioscience 2023-06, Vol.73 (6), p.433-440
Main Authors: Bonter, David N, Martin, Victoria Y, Greig, Emma I, Phillips, Tina B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birds
Environmental monitoring
Observation
Retention
Science Activities
Science Programs
Science Projects
Species diversity
Species richness
Volunteers
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Summary:Abstract Sustaining the efforts of volunteers is a challenge facing citizen science programs. Research on volunteer management shows that a diversity of factors may be correlated with sustained volunteerism. In the present article, we explore retention of participants in a large-scale citizen science project. We focus on Project FeederWatch, a bird-monitoring program. Using data from 17,991 participants, we found that the probability of retention increased with the diversity of species (species richness) reported by a participant, but retention was unrelated to the overall abundance of birds reported. Participants who successfully submitted an observation were more likely to remain in the project the following year (82.0% interannual retention) than people who registered but never submitted an observation (39.7%). Two measures of effort were positively correlated with retention. This work provides a case study for examining how demographic information and scientific data collected by participants can be mined to understand volunteer retention in environmental monitoring projects.
ISSN:0006-3568
1525-3244
DOI:10.1093/biosci/biad041