Crowdsourcing for Research: Perspectives From a Delphi Panel

Abstract

Crowdsourcing, an open call for the public to collaborate and participate in problem solving, has been increasingly employed as a method in health-related research studies. Various reviews of the literature across different disciplines found crowdsourcing being used for data collection, processing, and analysis as well as tasks such as problem solving, data processing, surveillance/monitoring, and surveying. Studies on crowdsourcing tend to focus on its use of software, technology and online platforms, or its application for the purposes previously noted. There is need for further exploration to understand how best to use crowdsourcing for research, as there is limited guidance for researchers who are undertaking crowdsourcing for the purposes of scientific study. Numerous authors have identified gaps in research related to crowdsourcing, including a lack of decision aids to assist researchers using crowdsourcing, and best-practice guidelines. This exploratory study looks at crowdsourcing as a research method by understanding how and why it is being used, through application of a modified Delphi technique. It begins to articulate how crowdsourcing is applied in practice by researchers, and its alignment with existing research methods. The result is a conceptual framework for crowdsourcing, developed within traditional and existing research approaches as a first step toward its use in research.