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. 

ProcessProcess section of Guidance

Shoresearch

Shoresearch data are verified by experienced staff and standardised. Click on the icons below to find out more about their archiving processes below:

Find out more...

Verification

There is a Data Management Plan which states that Shoresearch use verifiers from iRecord and that the data is to be shared with the NBN.

Verification is initially carried out during the survey by experienced staff within the Shoresearch team. The Shoresearch Team enter the verified data onto the Shoresearch data portal which adds the records to a database at the BRC. From here the data are shared to iRecord, where it goes through a second verification step before being shared with the NBN. Previously there was no draft stage on the data portal (a period of time where volunteers were still verifiying or checking species) and data would be immediately uploaded to the BRC, this led to issues with iRecord verification stage. Draft stages are now not shared and to resolve any issues. The data range is also checked during the QA process.

Standardisation

Data are standardised through the Shoresearch mobile app and data portal and species are aligned with the UK Species Inventory, enabling the data to be archived with the BRC.

[Shoresearch process image]
The Marine Biological Association