Ethical Concerns in Citizen Science Projects and Public Engagement Related Research Projects

The development of Citizen Science has accelerated recently. Alongside
its advantages, the involvement of lay people (volunteers, citizens) implies
ethical concerns for scientists. Hence, this contribution aims to describe ethical
concerns drawing on empirical cases found in the scientific literature on Citizen
Science projects and public engagement related research projects where Citizen Science and public engagement are seen as complementary to science and technology. This review testifies that from an ethical perspective scientists
encounter several multi-faceted occasions in both Citizen Science projects
and public engagement related research projects, such as how to engage the
public, to represent it, to accept public-provided data, to attribute authorship
for public-sourced data and so on. In line with this, scientists ought to be socially responsible, and thus ethical. To make this possible, appropriate institutional policy should be developed or improved.