Motivation and support services in citizen science insect monitoring: A cross-country study

The design and successful performance of citizen science-based monitoring require an understanding of the motivation and the needs of participants. Herem we use a questionnaire to assess intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and investigate in links between project support service and motivations in 181 participants taking part in three insect-focused citizen science projects in Denmark, Germany and Israel. Across all three countries, main intrinsic motivation for participating in the projects were to have fun and to do something (good) for nature. Equally important across all countries were extrinsic motivations such as contribute to science and contribute to nature conservation. Interestingly, differences in the projects (country or program-type) were more strongly related to respondent's motivation than demographic variables such as age and gender. Linking project support services to participants' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations revealed that the intrinsic motivation of feeling a part of the community as well as the extrinsic motivation learning and the service to provide training on insect identification were positively related. Interestingly, the support service of monetary incentives was negatively related with the motivation to conserve species generally and conserve insects specifically. We conclude, that early identification of the citizen scientists' motivation and the assessment of how motivations may change over time are important to foster successful and sustainable citizen science monitoring programs. International networks of (potentially similar) biodiversity monitoring schemes should consider differences in cultural background and citizen scientist's requirements, and accordingly tailor the projects designs to activate, train, and support participants according to their needs.

Automated summary

The study found that participants in citizen science projects were mainly motivated by fun and doing something for nature (intrinsic motivation), as well as contributing to science and nature conservation (extrinsic motivation). Project differences had a stronger impact on motivation than demographic variables. The study emphasizes the importance of identifying and assessing participants' motivations to foster successful and sustainable citizen science programs.