Citizen Science Case Studies

The case studies below demonstrate the data journey for specific marine citizen science projects, covering their planning, collection, processing, preservation, sharing and reuse.

Re-useRe-use section of Guidance

The Seabird Monitoring Programme

Once the data have been shared and accessed by the user, they can be used according to the conditions stated by the BTO, for many purposes. The SMP Online Portal includes a request form that users can submit to request data. This allows the SMP to keep track the number of data requests and to report on the number of downloads. Requests can be made through https://app.bto.org/seabirds/public/data.jsp.

Click the icons below to find out more about the how to request data, conditions of use and examples.

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Known uses

SMP Data provide evidence for:

Species Abundance Indicator: https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/ukbi-priority-species-abundance/
Scottish Seabird Indicator: https://www.nature.scot/doc/scottish-biodiversity-indicator-numbers-and-breeding-success-seabirds-1986-2023
Biodiversity Indicators: https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/ukbi-birds-of-the-wider-countryside-and-at-sea/#key-results-figure-6-the-index-of-breeding-seabird-populations-for-the-united-kingdom-1986-to-2024
OSPAR Indicators: https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/cross-cutting-issues/ospar-common-indicators
UK Wild Bird Indicator: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/wild-bird-populations-in-the-uk/technical-report-paper-the-wild-bird-indicator-for-the-uk-and-england
UK Official Statistics: https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/bbs-official-statistics/

Licenses

The SMP Data Guidance outlines the terms and conditions for using data collected as part of the project, accessed either from the SMP database or directly from the BTO. The data providers retain the copyright for the original data and a copy is held by theBTO and JNCC through the SMP Database.

The data providers must be acknowledged in any information products or publications where their data has contributed with the statement ‘Data were provided by the Seabird Monitoring Programme, a Scheme funded jointly by the British Trust for Ornithology and Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in association with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, with fieldwork conducted by both non-professional and professional surveyor.’, unless the user is also the original collector of the data. Users are not permitted to republish the data without written permission from SMP Partners and Associate Partners.

Further detail can be found in the guidance document here: smp_data_request_guide_aug22.pdf

[The Seabird Monitoring Programme sharing image] — British Trust for Ornithology

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