Students in their first year at University are often unaware of the process of scientific publication, and how peer review and editorial feedback improves the quality of writing and data analysis. In this project, students experience these processes first hand.
Teams of students enrolled in Frontiers in Biology (BIOL1130; up to 600 students; 2012-14) or Plant and Animal Biology (BIOL1131; up to 350 students; from 2015) conduct research on species thought to be good indicators of the effects of a changing climate in Australia. Teams are provided with raw data that has been submitted by citizen scientists to ClimateWatch since 2009 for a single species. They are encouraged to use the online resource The Altas of Living Australia to validate the ClimateWatch data, and to seek information from the scientific literature on the historical timing of breeding, flowering or migration. Students then decide on a question they can ask using the available data, and prepare a short scientific article using a template provided to them.
The project has been run in different ways since it's inception in 2012, but teamwork and peer feedback is a key feature. In the first phase, students conduct an analysis of the data provided to them, answering a subset of relevant questions. In phase 2, student teams work together to submit a complete article, usually focusing on the most interesting aspect of the data analysis. These articles are then assessed by Subject Editors, and teams received detailed feedback from their editor and up to four peer reviewers. Finally, teams revise their articles and submit them, along with a letter to their editor, for consideration for publication in Cygnus.
Revised articles are graded by the Subject Editors, who then recommend the best articles to the Unit Coordinators. The Unit Coordinators edit the published articles to ensure consistent formatting, but the articles that appear here are primarily the work and opinions of the students.
Each year the entire project - from formation of teams to publication - is completed over a single semester.
An evaluation of what we have learnt about involving university students in citizen science research was published in PLoS ONE in 2017, and can be accessed here.