How European Research Libraries Can Support Citizen-Enhanced Open Science

Abstract

Abstract Citizen science is spreading and numerous centres, services, or “hubs” within the field are manifesting themselves at European universities. Research libraries can potentially play a central role in advancing citizen science and open science. Building on a scoping literature review, a survey with 125 respondents, and an in-depth follow-up survey of 29 research libraries as part of the Citizen-enhanced Open Science in Southeastern Europe Higher Education Knowledge Hubs (CeOS_SE) project, this article outlines the current state and potential of citizen-enhanced open science (CE-OS) among European research libraries and presents a series of strategic and operational reflections for the future. Overall, research libraries report a high degree of understanding of both open science and citizen science and their applicability for society and research, but only few report the presence of services or infrastructure. Also, approximately half of the libraries engage in, or experiment with, citizen science. Common barriers exist such as resources, funding, strategy, and lack of policy. From these data, we present a typology to better understand how research libraries currently engage with citizen science and the steps that have been taken in this field. However, the overarching conclusion is that CE-OS with regards to European research libraries is contextual. There is no one size fits all.