Self-blinding citizen science to explore psychedelic microdosing

<p>Citizen science has globally been recognized as a vital part of open science and as a way of doing research that enables new levels of science education and science communication. Due to its high levels of public participation, citizen science can be of great value in bringing society and science closer together. Universities across the world have acknowledged this value and aim to incorporate citizen science in their policies and daily practices as part of their open science practices.</p><p>The Delft University of Technology has set the goal to develop an open science program that includes citizen science. However, implementing and incorporating citizen science in an open science program is not a straightforward task and demands knowledge, understanding, and experience of the field as well as the practical implications. What should a university do to support the goals of various citizen science initiatives, within an open science context, and to assist and facilitate researchers to perform effective participatory science? To gain a deeper understanding of what a citizen science project entails within the context of a university, we performed a case-study implementing citizen science methods for hydrological research. The project, called Delft Measures Rain, was developed in collaboration with external partners and several internal departments and their staff, some already having experience with developing and coordinating citizen science projects. Citizens of Delft were encouraged to participate and work together with scientists from the Water Management department to investigate rainfall patterns within the city. In total, 95 citizens collaborated for two months to collect over 1900 individual rainfall measurements spread over the city and taken with home-made rain gauges.  We developed tailored recruitment strategies, data collection and validation tools, data visuals, and communication strategies. Overall, the project has delivered valuable results, including reliable rainfall data, involvement and enthusiasm of citizens, and valuable feedback from participants. Additionally, this project has led to more cooperation of relevant institutions and civil society organizations (CSO) across the city and between different departments within the university itself.</p><p>This case-study has showcased how various stakeholders (researchers, citizens, civil servants, CSO’s, etc.) can benefit from co-developed participatory research implementing citizen science and open science principles. With this case study, we were able to identify the benefits, drawbacks, and opportunities for all stakeholders involved. Furthermore, we identified key tools and facilitation needs to assist researchers within the university to perform effective participatory science. During the session, we would like to share our methods, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. This project shows that, with the right knowledge and tools, citizen science can deliver what it promises and be of great value to universities and open science in general. </p>

Most European cities have air pollution levels that exceed the threshold for human health protection. Children are sensitive to air pollution and thus it is important to ensure they are not exposed to high concentrations of air pollutants. In order to make a positive change toward cleaner air, a joint effort is needed, involving all civil society actors. Schools and local communities have a decisive role, and can, for example, become engaged in citizen science initiatives and knowledge coproduction. In 2019, with the aim of raising awareness for air quality, NILU developed a citizen science toolbox to engage primary schools in monitoring air quality using a simple and affordable measuring method based on paper and petroleum jelly. This is a very visual method, where the students can clearly see differences from polluted and non-polluted places by looking at “how dirty” is the paper. In addition to the qualitative analysis, we have developed an air meter scale making possible for the students to obtain an indicative measurement of the air pollution level. The comparison between the paper and petroleum jelly method against reference PM10 data collected at two official air quality stations showed a good agreement. The method is a strong candidate for dust monitoring in citizen science projects, making participation possible and empowering people with simple tools at hand. The toolbox is targeted at primary schools and children aged 6–12 years, although it can easily be adapted to other age groups. The main objective of the toolbox is to involve young children who are usually not targeted in air quality citizen science activities, to develop research skills and critical thinking, as well as increase their awareness about the air they breathe. The toolbox is designed to engage students in hands-on activities, that challenge them to create hypotheses, design scientific experiments, draw conclusions and find creative solutions to the air pollution problem. The toolbox includes all the necessary material for the teachers, including guidance, background information and templates facilitating the incorporation in the school curricula. The toolbox was launched as part of the Oslo European Green Capital in March 2019 and was later included as part of the European Clean Air Day initiative coordinated by the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) working group on air quality. A total of 30 schools and 60 4th grade classes (aged 8–9 years) participated in the Oslo campaign. The citizen science approach employed in the schools, combined the four key elements that promote knowledge integration: elicit ideas, add new ideas, distinguish among ideas and reflect and sort out ideas. Although the main goal of the study was to provide simple but robust tools for engaging young children in air quality monitoring, we also carried out ex-ante and ex-post evaluations in 12 of the participating classes using a 10-question multiple choice test to have an indication of the contribution of the activity to knowledge integration. The results show that there is an increase in the number of correct answers, as well as a reduction in the misconceptions after conducting the activity. These results indicate that applying a citizen science approach improved science instruction and helped knowledge integration by including students' views and taking advantage of the diverse ideas students generated. Citizen science gives learners an insight into the ways that scientists generate solutions for societal problems. But more important, citizen science provides a way to differ from the classic view of the learner as an absorber of information, by considering the social context of instruction and making the topic personally relevant.

Nonspecific effects, particularly placebo effects, are thought to contribute significantly to the observed effect in surgical trials. To estimate the proportion of the observed effect of surgical treatment that is due to nonspecific effects (including the placebo effect). Published Cochrane reviews and updated, extended search of MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL until March 2019. Published randomized placebo-controlled surgical trials and trials comparing the effect of the same surgical interventions with nonoperative controls (ie, no treatment, usual care, or exercise program). Pairs of authors independently screened the search results, assessed full texts to identify eligible studies and the risk of bias of included studies, and extracted data. The proportion of all nonspecific effects was calculated as the change in the placebo control divided by the change in the active surgery and pooled in a random-effect meta-analysis. To estimate the magnitude of the placebo effect, we pooled the difference in outcome between placebo and nonoperative controls and used metaregression to estimate the association between the type of control group and the treatment effect (difference between the groups), adjusting for risk of bias, sample size, and type of outcome. Between- and within-group effect sizes expressed as Hedges g. In this review, 100 trials were included comprising data from 62 trials with placebo controls (3 also included nonoperative controls), and 38 trials with nonoperative controls (32 interventions; 10 699 participants). Risk of bias across trials was comparable except for performance and detection bias, which was high in trials with nonoperative controls. The mean nonspecific effects accounted for 67% (95% CI, 61% to 73%) of the observed change after surgery; however, this varied widely between different procedures. The estimated surgical placebo effect had a standardized mean difference (SMD) of 0.13 (95% CI, -0.26 to 0.51). Trials with placebo and nonoperative controls found comparable treatment effects (SMD, -0.09 [95% CI, -0.35 to 0.18]; 15 interventions; 73 between-group effects; adjusted analysis: SMD, -0.11 [95% CI, -0.37 to 0.15]). In this review, the change in health state after surgery was composed largely of nonspecific effects, but no evidence supported a large placebo effect. Placebo-controlled surgical trials may be redundant when trials with nonoperative controls consistently report no substantial association from surgery compared with nonoperative treatment.

To evaluate the effects of adjunctive pregabalin 300 mg/day versus placebo on polysomnographic (PSG) variables in patients with well controlled partial seizures and subjectively reported sleep disturbance. An exploratory, 4-week, double-blind, randomized study in patients with well controlled partial seizures on AED monotherapy and subjective sleep disturbance over the previous 6 months. Mean changes from baseline to endpoint in PSG and subjective sleep variables (MOS Sleep Scale, Groningen Sleep Questionnaire) in patients on adjunctive pregabalin 300 mg/day (n=8) were compared with patients on placebo (n=7). Baseline PSGs showed sleep fragmentation. Mean sleep efficiency improved significantly in both treatment groups in the mean baseline to endpoint change; there was no significant between-group difference. Pregabalin treatment was associated with a significant reduction in number of awakenings (p = 0.02), and improvement in wake time after sleep onset approached significance (p = 0.055), suggesting improvement in sleep continuity that was not observed in the placebo group. Pregabalin was also associated with significant improvements in the MOS sleep disturbance and sleep quantity subscales compared with placebo (p < or =0.03). There were no changes in self-reported seizure control. This exploratory pilot study suggests that pregabalin may improve sleep continuity in patients with clinically relevant sleep disturbance. The effect on disturbed sleep appears independent of seizure control. The effects of pregabalin on disturbed sleep and seizures and their interrelationships warrant further study.

BackgroundAssumptions underlying placebo controlled trials include that the placebo effect impacts on all study arms equally, and that treatment effects are additional to the placebo effect. However, these assumptions have recently been challenged, and different mechanisms may potentially be operating in the placebo and treatment arms. The objective of the current study was to explore the nature of placebo versus pharmacological effects by comparing predictors of the placebo response with predictors of the treatment response in a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of a phytotherapeutic combination for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. A substantial placebo response was observed but no significant difference in efficacy between the two arms.MethodsA post hoc analysis was conducted on data from 93 participants who completed this previously published study. Variables at baseline were investigated as potential predictors of the response on any of the endpoints of flushing, overall menopausal symptoms and depression. Focused tests were conducted using hierarchical linear regression analyses. Based on these findings, analyses were conducted for both groups separately. These findings are discussed in relation to existing literature on placebo effects.ResultsDistinct differences in predictors were observed between the placebo and active groups. A significant difference was found for study entry anxiety, and Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS) scores, on all three endpoints. Attitude to menopause was found to differ significantly between the two groups for GCS scores. Examination of the individual arms found anxiety at study entry to predict placebo response on all three outcome measures individually. In contrast, low anxiety was significantly associated with improvement in the active treatment group. None of the variables found to predict the placebo response was relevant to the treatment arm.ConclusionThis study was a post hoc analysis of predictors of the placebo versus treatment response. Whilst this study does not explore neurobiological mechanisms, these observations are consistent with the hypotheses that 'drug' effects and placebo effects are not necessarily additive, and that mutually exclusive mechanisms may be operating in the two arms. The need for more research in the area of mechanisms and mediators of placebo versus active responses is supported.Trial RegistrationInternational Clinical Trials Registry ISRCTN98972974.

Leveling up citizen science.

This editorial introduces the special issue entitled “Geoinformatics in Citizen Science” of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. The issue includes papers dealing with three main topics. (1) Key tasks of citizen science (CS) in leveraging geoinformatics. This comprises descriptions of citizen science initiatives where geoinformation management and processing is the key means for discovering new knowledge, and it includes: (i) “hackAIR: Towards Raising Awareness about Air Quality in Europe by Developing a Collective Online Platform” by Kosmidis et al., (ii) “Coupling Traditional Monitoring and Citizen Science to Disentangle the Invasion of Halyomorpha halys” by Malek et al., and (iii) “Increasing the Accuracy of Crowdsourced Information on Land Cover via a Voting Procedure Weighted by Information Inferred from the Contributed Data” by Foody et al. (2) Evaluations of approaches to handle geoinformation in CS. This examines citizen science initiatives which critically analyze approaches to acquire and handle geoinformation, and it includes: (iv) “CS Projects Involving Geoinformatics: A Survey of Implementation Approaches” by Criscuolo et al., (v) “Obstacles and Opportunities of Using a Mobile App for Marine Mammal Research” by Hann et al., (vi) “OSM Data Import as an Outreach Tool to Trigger Community Growth? A Case Study in Miami” by Juhász and Hochmair, and (vii) “Experiences with Citizen-Sourced VGI in Challenging Circumstances“ by Hameed et al. (3) Novel geoinformatics research issues: (viii) “A New Method for the Assessment of Spatial Accuracy and Completeness of OpenStreetMap Building Footprints” by Brovelli and Zamboni, (ix) “A Citizen Science Approach for Collecting Toponyms” by Perdana and Ostermann, and (x) “An Automatic User Grouping Model for a Group Recommender System in Location-Based Social Networks” by Khazaei and Alimohammadi.

Seaweed is already one of the largest aquaculture crops globally. It is predicted to expand in developed countries, such as Australia, in the coming decades, providing both products (e.g., food, animal feed, nutraceuticals) and seedstock for the restoration of declining seaweed forests. In Australia, public acceptance and social licence for aquaculture can be contested, creating a barrier to new projects. Concurrently, scaled-up restoration of lost underwater seaweed forests will potentially rely on (i) contributions from citizen scientists, (ii) aquaculture. Therefore, it is essential to understand people's concerns, motivations, and benefits regarding the restorative aquaculture of seaweeds in developed countries, such as Australia, to enhance its sustainable development. Drawing on social licence to operate, ocean literacy, and marine identity perspectives, this thesis examines how participation is initiated, what motivates it, and what outcomes it produces for individuals and legitimacy. This thesis is structured across six interconnected chapters, each contributing unique insights into the human dimensions of seaweed restoration and the mechanisms that may help in driving public support of restorative seaweed aquaculture. To assess what is presently understood about aquaculture's environmental benefits and impacts, Chapter 1 reviews the literature. This chapter compares seaweed production to other types of aquacultures, highlighting its unique capacity to provide critical ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and habitat restoration. This chapter also provides the foundation for this thesis and presents the conceptual framework that underpins the thesis. The framework proposes a pathway for a social licence for restorative seaweed aquaculture (e.g., legitimacy, trust, perceived value, and willingness to support). Chapter 2 details an experiment on recruiting citizen scientists via social media to assess the efficacy of different messaging strategies in encouraging individuals to engage with content or sign up as citizen scientists. A fully factorial experiment was conducted over an 18-day recruitment campaign period, using short-form videos to compare different messaging combinations (content with a focus on the environment, people or seaweed, with either a positive or negative ‘framing’), and engagement metrics (interactions, views, follows, etc) across three social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn). The study found that user engagement was platform-specific, with more users (10-15 times) viewing content on TikTok than on Instagram or LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn and Instagram users interacted more meaningfully with the content, resulting in a greater impact. The results demonstrate that video ‘views’ do not necessarily translate into meaningful engagement, and that approximately 1% of participants who engage with online content may eventually sign up and participate in real-world restoration work as citizen scientists. Chapter 3 explored the demographic traits and motivations of people who signed up to volunteer as citizen scientists with the seaweed research group. This chapter examined the emotional drivers of participation, including the roles of emotions such as awe and wonder in fostering connection and pro-environmental behaviours, as well as climate change worry and identity. These findings offer insights into some of the factors that may be crucial for inspiring public engagement, which is essential for designing effective and inclusive restoration programs and citizen science recruitment campaigns that can underpin scaled-up restoration projects in the future. Chapter 4 evaluated the mental health and well-being benefits of participating in a seaweed restoration project on the Sunshine Coast by comparing the well-being survey responses of participants before, immediately after, and two weeks after participation. The findings revealed that active involvement in ecological restoration led to a significant increase in individuals' subjective nature connectedness (INS), which persisted for at least two weeks following the event and a reduction in feelings of stress and helplessness. These findings suggest that citizen science initiatives are not only good for the environment but also human mental well-being. Chapter 5: A systematic review was conducted to assess social attitudes towards aquaculture and ecological restoration, including the economic opportunities and enhanced community resilience that it can provide. Central to this chapter is the question of how attitudes towards aquaculture production and restoration differ globally, with a particular focus on comparisons between developed and developing countries, and how these attitudes might influence perceptions of seaweed restoration and hinder aquaculture development in Australia. This review helps to provide clarity on where legitimacy and acceptance dynamics converge or diverge across restoration and aquaculture, thus informing implications for social licence to operate for restorative aquaculture in Australia. Lastly, Chapter 6 synthesises findings from the previous five chapters, drawing connections between the ecological and social dimensions of restorative seaweed aquaculture and public participation. It highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, combining environmental science, social psychology, and communication strategies to create scalable solutions for marine ecosystem restoration.

In order for citizen science initiatives to pan out well, various actors need to be willing to engage in citizen science activities. The particular interest in this chapter lies with the citizens and their motivations to participate in ICT-enabled citizen science since, arguably, without citizen participation, there is no citizen science activity. The authors examine in detail what determines citizens' interest to share their weather-related data collected with Personal Weather Stations via online amateur networks and how these citizen activities could be up-scaled to address prevalent hydro-meteorological data gaps. A decision making theory is used to guide empirical research in three European countries. The results indicate no regional differences between the main drivers and incentives and raise the question whether weather observation is still a male-dominated activity in the digital age which would have implications for upscaling this citizen science initiative.

The citizen science approach enables the collection of extensive ecological data while reducing time and cost, offering a valuable tool to address complex conservation challenges. However, its precision in monitoring morphologically similar freshwater fish species remains insufficiently explored. This study evaluates the effectiveness of citizen science in distinguishing between the critically endangered crucian carp ( Carassius carassius ) and the invasive gibel carp ( Carassius gibelio ), two closely related species often confused due to their similar appearance. The native crucian carp has experienced a sharp population decline in Central Europe and is currently classified as critically endangered in the Czech Republic. In response, the citizen science initiative, save the crucian carp was launched to map the species’ distribution and support its conservation and restoration. We assessed the project’s effectiveness using data submitted by 953 participants, which included current and historical occurrence records for both crucian and gibel carp. The analysis focused on species identification accuracy, public engagement, and the influence of media outreach on participation. Field verification of reported sightings revealed a 35% accuracy rate for crucian carp identification. A positive correlation was observed between respondents’ species identification quiz scores and the number of valid occurrence tips submitted. Participants aged 31–50 showed the highest engagement in conservation efforts. Notably, media campaigns significantly boosted public involvement, highlighting the importance of awareness-building in fostering biodiversity stewardship. Data collected through citizen science exhibited broader coverage and greater reporting regularity compared to records from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, underscoring the value of citizen contributions in shaping conservation strategies. Overall, this study illustrates the promise of citizen science as a scalable and impactful approach for monitoring and conserving threatened freshwater fish species.

1. Successful monitoring and management of plant resources worldwide needs the involvement of civil society to support natural reserve managers. Because it is difficult to correctly and quickly identify plant species for non‐specialists, the development of recent techniques based on automatic visual identification should facilitate and increase public engagement in citizen science initiatives. 2. Automatic identification platforms are new to most citizen scientists and land managers. Pl@ntNet is such a platform, available since 2013 on web and mobile environments, and now included in several workflows such as invasive alien species management, endemic species monitoring, educational activities and eco‐tourism practices. The successful development of such platforms needs to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve and facilitate their use in all aspects of ecosystem management. 3. Here we present two Pl@ntNet citizen science initiatives used by conservation practitioners in Europe (France) and Africa (Kenya). We discuss various perspectives, including benefits and limitations. Based on the experiences of field managers, we formulate several recommendations for future initiatives. The recommendations are aimed at a diverse group of conservation managers and citizen science practitioners.

Wildlife observations submitted by volunteers through citizen science initiatives are increasingly used within research and policy. Ladybirds are popular and charismatic insects, with most species being relatively easy to identify from photographs. Therefore, they are considered an appropriate taxonomic group for engaging people through citizen science initiatives to contribute long-term and large-scale datasets for use in many different contexts. Building on the strengths of a mass participation citizen science survey on ladybirds in the United Kingdom, we have developed a mobile application for ladybird recording and identification across Europe. The main aims of the application are to: (1) compile distribution data for ladybird species throughout Europe, and use this to assess changes in distribution over time; (2) connect and engage people in nature and increase awareness about the diversity and ecological importance of ladybirds. In developing the application we first constructed a database including ladybird species from the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal with associated information on relevant morphological features (e.g., size, main color, pronotum pattern) to inform identification. Additionally, the species were assessed on the basis of probability of occurrence within each country which enables users to reduce the number of species to only those with relevance to the location of the recorder. This is amongst the first collaborative citizen science approaches aimed at involving participants across Europe in recording a group of insects. In the near future, we aim to expand the use of the application to all countries in Europe.

Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Given the constant increase of Citizen Science initiatives, recruiting strategies have to be planned properly. Retention is pivotal as well, especially when time is invested in volunteers’ training. However, practically no follow-up data are available on retention after major Citizen Science initiatives. CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) was a 42-month project (2014–2017) funded by the European Commission in the framework of the LIFE+ programme (LIFE13 ENV/IT/842). It aimed at increasing awareness on Citizen Science among citizens, researchers, and decision makers in Italy. During CSMON-LIFE, recruitment was based on extensive awareness raising actions on different media. In total, 5558 volunteers were engaged in different field activities during the project and its follow-up. They gathered a total of 30062 geo-referenced observations, each with an image of the reported organism. Their activities were organized in campaigns, each devoted to a different topic. This study aims at investigating volunteers’ performance and retention in the funded period of CSMON-LIFE (December 2014–November 2017) and in its after-LIFE follow-up period (December 2017–November 2020), for a total of 72 months.

BackgroundUrban environments are increasingly recognized as important habitats for wildlife, yet information on how reptiles use urban environments remains scarce. The Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus), a non-venomous colubrid widespread in Central Europe, is considered a habitat generalist with a frequent association with human settlements. However, data on its occurrence and ecology in metropolitan areas are limited. To address this gap, we implemented a citizen science initiative in Bratislava, Slovakia, aiming to document the distribution and habitat use of the Aesculapian snake and to evaluate the potential and limitations of citizen science for reptile monitoring in urban environments.ResultsBetween April 2019 and October 2022, a citizen science initiative was implemented to monitor the distribution and ecology of the Aesculapian snake in Bratislava, Slovakia. The project relied primarily on social media, which proved to be the most effective channel for data collection, complemented by direct e-mail submissions. Altogether, volunteers provided 588 verified records of the focal species, alongside 184 misidentified observations of other native reptiles, most frequently Natrix spp. Spatial analyses showed that most observations of the Aesculapian snake in Bratislava were concentrated in natural and semi-natural areas at lower elevations below 300 m a.s.l., with a few records above 500 m. Within these areas, snakes were most often reported from built-up and forested land cover, while agricultural land yielded comparatively few sightings. Seasonal patterns indicated a pronounced peak in spring and early summer, while diurnal activity was dominated by midday and afternoon observations. Specifically, the number of reports declined with increasing urbanization intensity but was higher in more densely populated areas, reflecting both ecological patterns and the availability of observers.ConclusionThis study delivers one of the most comprehensive datasets on the Aesculapian snake in an urban setting, highlighting its synanthropic behavior and frequent use of anthropogenic habitats. At the same time, the results underscore both the opportunities and inherent biases of citizen science, confirming its value as a complementary tool for monitoring reptile populations in metropolitan environments.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-025-02469-6.

Citizen science initiatives are projects that engage the general public in science research through active participation in data collection, observation, analysis, and/or design of research questions. They have experienced significant growth in recent years, driven in part by increased interconnectedness facilitated by the internet. While some projects simply seek to foster recreational engagement in the scientific enterprise, others contribute critical data to ongoing research projects and conservation efforts. One person making waves in the citizen science field is Professor Darlene Cavalier, Professor of Practice in the School for the Future of Innovation and Society at Arizona State University, founder of SciStarter, Science Cheerleaders, and cofounder of Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology (ECAST). SciStarter is an online platform that provides information about ongoing citizen science projects and hosts free training modules. MIT Science Policy Review spoke with Professor Cavalier to learn more about the impacts of citizen science initiatives, their ethical and policy considerations, and the trajectory and future of the field.