Research Data Management in Health and Biomedical Citizen Science: Practices and Prospects

Background: Public engagement in health and biomedical research is being influenced by the paradigm of citizen science. However, conventional health and biomedical research relies on sophisticated research data management tools and methods. Considering these, what contribution can citizen science make in this field of research? How can it follow research protocols and produce reliable results?

Objective: The aim of this paper is to analyse research data management practices in existing biomedical citizen science studies, so as to provide insights for members of the public and of the research community considering this approach to research.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted on this topic to determine data management characteristics of health and bio medical citizen science research. From this review and related web searching, we chose five online platforms and a specific research project associated with each, to understand their research data management approaches and enabler...