Learning from successful long-term citizen science programs

Citizen science is increasingly recognised as an important, indeed necessary, contribution to environmental research and policy, as well as for fostering stronger relationships between scientists and the broader community. Well-established citizen science projects offer valuable insights by virtue of the long-term contribution of volunteers to sustained research and monitoring activities. Here we draw on two of Australia’s longest running citizen science projects, Waterwatch and the Australian Shorebird Monitoring Program (formerly Shorebirds 2020), to argue that such projects reflect successful citizen science in terms of their program persistence, reputation and impact. This success has been enabled by (1) developing a clear vision; (2) effective knowledge management; (3) relationship building; (4) meaningful volunteer engagement; and (5) a capacity to adapt to change. We recommend that new and emerging projects embed these principles in their program development, particularly those aiming to generate longitudinal datasets while building motivated, informed and connected communities.