Victoria Y. Martin

Mosaic Insights · Social Science

Social studies in citizen science typically focus on existing project participants. We present results from an online survey of 1145 marine users to identify broader public interest in marine citizen science. Although we found considerable community interest, the most enthusiastic tended to have a higher education in science, were under 45 years ol...

Consequences of shifting species distributions Climate change is causing geographical redistribution of plant and animal species globally. These distributional shifts are leading to new ecosystems and ecological communities, changes that will affect human society. Pecl et al. review these current and future impacts and assess their implications for...

Managers of marine protected areas (MPAs) are constantly challenged to encourage positive user behaviour to minimise impacts on marine ecosystems while allowing recreational use. Yet, some marine users continue to act in ways that diminish conservation values of the area. Drawing on social psychological theories, this paper presents a case for info...

Why do natural scientists continue to conduct and review environmental social science research without training and experience in the social sciences? Perhaps they have come to realize that many of the environmental challenges we face are, fundamentally, human problems. Perhaps they assume that asking people questions is easy, or their well-intenti...

The coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic is affecting the environment and conservation research in fundamental ways. Many conservation social scientists are now administering survey questionnaires online, but they must do so while ensuring rigor in data collection. Further, they must address a suite of unique challenges, such as the increasing use of mo...

Strengthening community engagement in stewardship can help to improve management of coastal and freshwater environments (blue spaces). Research suggests that recreational users of natural areas may be more willing to engage in stewardship. However, little research at a population scale has examine how recreation experiences shape psychological ingr...

Sustaining the efforts of volunteers is a challenge facing citizen science programs. Research on volunteer management shows that a diversity of factors may be correlated with sustained volunteerism. In the present article, we explore retention of participants in a large-scale citizen science project. We focus on Project FeederWatch, a bird-monitori...

In North America, nest site competition from invasive cavity-nesting birds can limit the opportunities for successful nesting by native birds. Managing invasive species is costly and complex, requiring input from biologists, decision makers, and the public. An informed and engaged public can play an important role in mitigating the negative effects...

The emergence of citizen science has opened new possibilities for research to inform management and conservation policies. This requires a deep understanding and inclusion of diverse stakeholders. In marine environments, divers are among the largest groups of citizen science volunteers, compared to other marine users. However, little is known about...

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is impacting the environment and conservation research in fundamental ways. For conservation social scientists, the pandemic has necessitated swift changes to research methods, including shifting away from in-person data collection. Social survey data are key to integrating perspectives and knowledge from a varie...

Invasive species are a threat to global biodiversity, yet the impacts of invasive birds on the native birds with which they compete are understudied. Humans have a long history of providing and managing nest boxes to support native birds; however, their management of non-native birds has received limited research attention. We surveyed people who m...

Citizen science includes a suite of research approaches that involves participation by citizens, who are not usually trained scientists, in scientific projects. Citizen science projects have the capacity to record observations of species with high precision and accuracy, offering the potential for collection of biological data to support a diversit...

Divers have widely participated in citizen science (CS) projects and are one of the main groups of marine citizen scientists. However, there is little knowledge about profiles of, and incentives for potential divers to join CS projects. To date, most studies have focused on the SCUBA diving industry; nevertheless, there is a diversity of divers, no...

FREE ACCESS UNTIL JULY 10, 2019, via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Z5NA1R~eAsvT. Conservation science has rapidly adopted citizen science to engage the public in knowledge generation, developing environmental policies, solving localized environmental issues, and generating public support for environmental management. For conservation...

Presentation to the Wild Bird Feeding Industry conference, which gave an overview of some of my postdoctoral research at the Lab.

Environmentally-focused citizen science has attracted an explosion of interest for its ability to efficiently gather large-scale data sets, provide opportunities for public engagement with scientists and scientific research, and initiate actions that lead to conservation outcomes. Project managers are often challenged by the recruitment and retenti...

Over the past two decades, there has been anecdotal reporting of declines in young people’s engagement with natural environments. This article focuses on Generation Y, also commonly referred to as the Millennials. Through a scoping study of published research to 2017, we explore how Generation Y experiences, views, and is influenced by natural area...

[Please note: at present there is no written paper associated with this presentation, however a publication of the first phase results is expected late 2018/early 2019]. Citizen science programs operating at large scales typically attract thousands of participants, across sizeable geographic areas (regional, national and global). Many people make w...

Citizen science has been embraced for the opportunities it presents to engage the public in the participatory model of science communication. The remarkable growth in citizen science practice in recent years has led to a substantial increase in social research on its outcomes. This body of work has shown citizen science experiences can provide many...

Climate change is driving a pervasive global redistribution of the planet's species. Species redistribution poses new questions for the study of ecosystems, conservation science and human societies that require a coordinated and integrated approach. Here we review recent progress, key gaps and strategic directions in this nascent research area, emp...

Climate change is driving a pervasive global redistribution of the planet's species. Species redistribution poses new questions for the study of ecosystems, conservation science and human societies that require a coordinated and integrated approach. Here we review recent progress, key gaps and strategic directions in this nascent research area, emp...

Today participants in citizen science projects have the capacity to record observations about their environment with high precision and accuracy. However, substantial difficulties remain in ensuring large-scale collection and verification of species data by the untrained public is a robust and useful long-term endeavour. Here we describe approaches...

Citizen science (CS) encompasses a great variety of project managers, participants and other stakeholders, who together form a rich tapestry of perspectives on the world around us. The question of using, managing and sharing CS-generated data, and understanding the diversity of views on data issues, is critical to reaching interoperability and crea...

This study examines citizen science projects, with particular emphasis on the stakeholders involved in data and knowledge generation and the use and reuse of information, with the aim of informing data and metadata standardization and interoperability initiatives. It draws on semi-structured interviews with 16 CS projects with different governance...

Please note: the postprint for this article is available for download at bit.ly/VYMartin, or you can request the paper directly through ResearchGate. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Science Communication, 39(2), April 2017 published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117...

Citizen science has facilitated scientific research at greater scales than professional scientists can achieve alone. Much of the current enthusiasm for citizen science also revolves around strengthening the relationship between science and society, through involving the public in ‘real’ research. In addition to contributing to scientific knowledge...

Presentation of national survey results at the Marine and Coastal Citizen Science Workshop, at the Coast to Coast 2016 Conference. http://www.coasttocoast2016.org.au/

Public participation in science is burgeoning, yet little is known about factors that influence potential volunteers. We present results from a national survey of 1,145 marine users to uncover the drivers and barriers to a sightings-based, digital marine citizen science project. Knowledge of marine species is the most significant barrier and driver...

Citizen science is gaining recognition as a means for public collection of valuable information which can improve reef management outcomes. Benefits include increased data to supplement scientific research programs; community engagement and capacity building; and cost-effective and innovative program structures. Yet, citizen science programs often...

The Commons Lab at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, US, is leading an analysis of important international stakeholders in citizen science. The main goal of this stakeholder analysis is to identify the individuals, groups, and organizations that will be impacted by a data and metadata standardization project.

Interviews were conducted with 110 marine users to elicit their salient beliefs about recording marine species in a citizen science project. The results showed that many interviewees believe participation would increase knowledge (either scientific, the community’s, or their own). While almost half of the interviewees saw no negative outcomes, a sm...

The public are increasingly becoming involved in scientific research across the globe. Often referred to as ‘citizen science’, this field of scientific practice has seen remarkable growth over the last decade, and marine science is no exception. Marine citizen science projects are now addressing a wide variety of environmental knowledge-gaps on tem...

Available at http://epubs.scu.edu.au/theses/516 BRIEF ABSTRACT: Collaborations between scientists and the public, often referred to as citizen science, are advancing knowledge, and strengthening relationships between science and society. This study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour in 110 face-to-face interviews and 1145 online surveys of marine...

Citizen science is increasingly being used to engage the public in scientific research projects around the world in a wide variety of fields including ornithology, neuroscience, astronomy and many more. While these projects offer exciting opportunities for fostering connections between science and society, few have considered science engagement fro...

There is no citizen science without an engaged public. Yet little, if any, research has been done to determine how much public interest there is to participate. With increasing resources and effort going into citizen science projects, it is important to first understand if, why and under what circumstances or conditions the public want to become in...

The effectiveness of science communication strategies can be improved through better understanding of the audience (Stern, 2011). This is often difficult for those charged with communicating science due to a lack of time, resources or expertise, resulting in ad hoc, untargeted communication (Nisbet & Scheufele, 2009). However, greater collaboration...

Competing interests related to marine resources have the potential to create conflict in the coastal zone. In many parts of the world marine farms exist in close proximity to areas that support recreation and tourism. The purpose of this study was to examine residents’ perceptions of proposed marine farm development related to their proximity to, a...

New Zealand's commitment to Kyoto is likely to stimulate corporate reductions in greenhouse gas emission. Could a programme be designed to also encourage the extensive regeneration of ecologically sound carbon sinks?

This report presents results from visitor surveys and stakeholder interviews at three natural attractions in the Paparoa National Park. The sites were the Pancake Rocks (Dolomite Point), the Fox River caves, and the Westland Black Petrel colony. Questions in the surveys and interviews were based on the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) framework to...

The main objective of this research was to evaluate tourist impacts on geothermal vegetation and to examine visitor's attitudes towards their impacts on vegetation. Two commercially operated sites near Rotorua were selected for research and a controlled trampling experiment was carried out on another geothermal site. Changes in vegetation cover wer...

Research on crowding in natural environments has traditionally been concerned with encounters in terrestrial settings. Increased visitation to tropical marine environments, however, has meant that evaluations of aesthetic quality are increasingly becoming issues for managers of marine parks. In this study, we used image-capture techniques to develo...

This study sought to determine whether reef visitors’ ideal images of the Great Barrier Reef were used in the development of visitor expectancies of the reef experience and evaluative judgments of coral reef quality. Using 20 photographs of coral reef environments, a sample of 103 reef tourists judged how similar each photograph was to their ideal,...