At ECSA 2024, I shared my perspective on how data science can help us better understand and support participation in citizen science. I argued for a shift beyond traditional metrics like publications and citations, toward measuring the quality of engagement—using indicators such as relational well-being and collaborative dynamics.

Using digital traces from participatory projects, like interactions on social platforms, I showed how we can build a quantitative “science of citizen science” that respects the perspectival richness and informality of these initiatives. I drew on our work with the OpenCovid19 community to illustrate how we can map evolving collaboration networks and task structures over time. But I also stressed the ethical tensions this raises—especially when using individual-level data—and called for careful, context-sensitive approaches to privacy and agency in this emerging field.

📄 Session report: https://doi.org/10.3897/ap.e126772