In Citizen Science, experts from a variety of disciplines share their experiences of creating and implementing successful citizen science projects, primarily those that use massive data sets gathered by citizen scientists.

Janis L. Dickinson is Professor of Natural Resources at Cornell University and Arthur A. Allen Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Rick Bonney is Director of Program Development and Evaluation at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Richard Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle. John W. Fitzpatrick is the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University.

Not only does this research allow for extensive data collection, but it makes research relevant to the general public and provides additional teaching tools for K-12 education. This book also explores the impact of the increased use of social media on the success of citizen science projects and investigates potential future uses of social media for such projects. It incorporates the views of many subject experts, with each chapter written by those with firsthand experience of the respective topics. An extensive bibliography provides sources for further information. Summing Up: Highly recommended.

Meg Lowman:

Dickinson and Bonney's volume, Citizen Science, represents an important foundation text to launch the burgeoning arena of citizen science.... This book provides the 'recipes' for all scientists to undertake an aspect of citizen science as part of their research portfolio. My overall reaction is 'Awesome!'.

Mark Eaton:

A timely review of recent developments, seeking to provide an overview, with relevant case studies, of the growth of large-scale citizen science projects since the late 1980s. One of the book's merits is its breadth, seeking to explore not just the practical issues of delivering robust science through volunteers but also the benefits this brings to a variety of environmental research fields and the impacts – educational, social and behavioural – it has on the participants themselves.

John M. Merzluff:

Citizen Science succeeds in showcasing a path to knowledge that is unfamiliar to—and, at first glance, unwanted by—many professional scientists. Its well-written, wide-ranging, and accessible chapters make a compelling argument that engaging the public in scientific research is important in order to increase our environmental knowledge and build a citizenry that values and uses what sciences produces. This book inspires the professional to see the scientist in everyone and to broaden our research programs, which will stoke the fire of scientific curiosity that burns within each of us.