A Rubric to Evaluate Citizen-Science Programs for Long-Term Ecological Monitoring

Citizen-science (CS) programs provide a cost-effective way to collect monitoring data over large temporal and spatial scales. Despite the recent proliferation of these programs, some in the conservation and management community remain skeptical about the quality of information generated, in part because of the lack of a rigorous framework for program evaluation. Drawing from the CS literature, we developed a structured rubric to guide the evaluation of CS programs. We test the utility of the rubric by conducting an internal and external review of a case-study CS program. The case study demonstrates the importance of the evaluation process and the effectiveness of the rubric to identify program elements that needed improvement. Our results support the assertion that program evaluation using a structured rubric can help CS programs meet their objectives, promote CS data usage in conservation and management, and maximize CS return on investment.