Citizen science data in peer-reviewed publications: The Geo-Wiki experience

The role of citizen science in research is expanding, which often raises concerns about data quality. Recently, the Geo-Wiki team at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has implemented two citizen science projects (e.g. FotoQuest Austria, Cropland Validation) focused on improving land use and land cover monitoring. In these projects, the team designed specific measures to enhance the quality of data provided by volunteers and in turn these citizen-driven results have led to peer-reviewed publications in key journals (e.g. Remote Sensing, Nature’s Scientific Data). As such, in this paper, we describe our methodology to improve data quality in citizen science projects and provide a series of recommendations on project design and implementation