Citizen Science Research Guide

CitizenScience.gov is an official government website designed to accelerate the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across the U.S. government. The site provides a portal to three key components: a catalog of federally supported citizen science projects, a toolkit to assist federal practitioners with designing and maintaining their projects, and a gateway to a community of hundreds of citizen science practitioners and coordinators.

The Citizen Science Association is a member-driven organization that connects people from a wide range of experiences around one shared purpose: advancing knowledge through research and monitoring done by, for, and with members of the public.

Get ideas for how you can participate in citizen science—projects in which volunteers and scientists work together to answer real-world questions and gather data.

Did You Feel It? (DYFI) collects information from people who felt an earthquake and creates maps that show what people experienced and the extent of damage.

Join birders around the world to contribute to science, conservation and education.

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. Through interdisciplinary activities and inquiries into the various Earth spheres, GLOBE gives students a hands-on approach to the scientific method.

NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries. More than 410 NASA citizen scientists have been named as co-authors on refereed scientific publications.

Help NOAA predict, observe and protect our changing planet by making your own contributions toward a greater understanding of our Earth and its diverse systems.

There are many opportunities to become a citizen scientist in national parks!

SciStarter is a globally acclaimed, online citizen science hub where thousands of projects, searchable by location, topic, age level, etc., have been registered.

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. Study authentic objects of interest gathered by researchers, like images of faraway galaxies, historical records and diaries, or videos of animals in their natural habitats. By answering simple questions about them, you’ll help contribute to our understanding of our world, our history, our Universe, and more.