Legal Issues in Citizen Science

Citizen scientists are important to research projects. Photo by Debbie Burroughs

These publications — fact sheets and a white paper — are part of a series that addresses relevant legal issues when conducting citizen science projects. The goal is to help minimize the impacts legal issues can have on citizen science projects, so these issues do not become roadblocks to the success of these projects. These documents are intended for volunteers and citizen science project leaders and researchers conducting coastal and marine science, particularly in North Carolina. However, practitioners in other disciplines and states can adapt these guidelines for their own use.

• A Guide for Coastal and Marine Scientists and Their Volunteers in North Carolina
• Intellectual Property
• Liability
• Trespass

Resources

• Cigliano, John A., Ryan Meyer, Heidi L. Ballard, Amy Freitag, Tina B. Phillips, and Ann Wasser (2015). “Making marine and coastal citizen science matter.” From Making Marine Science Matter: Issues and Solutions from the 3rd International Marine Conservation Congress (John Cigliano, E.C.M. Parsons, Samantha Oester and Brett Favaro, eds.). In Ocean & Coastal Management, vol. 115, Oct. 2015, pp. 77–87.
• Gellman, Robert (2015). Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science, and the Law: Legal Issues Affecting Federal Agencies. Wilson Center Policy Memo Series, vol. 3., pp. 16, 87–93.
• S.213 (114th Congress). Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Act of 2015.
• Scassa, Teresa, and Haewon Chung (2015). Typology of Citizen Science Projects From An Intellectual Property Perspective: Invention and Authorship Between Researchers and Participants. Wilson Center Policy Memo Series, vol. 5.
• Smith, Bailey (2014). Agency Liability Stemming From Citizen-Generated Data. Wilson Center Policy Memo Series, vol. 3.
• Stodden, Victoria (2008). The Legal Framework for Reproducible Scientific Research: Licensing and Copyright.
• U.S. Copyright Office (reviewed 2012). Copyright Basics, Library of Congress.

Contact

Or contact staff at the N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center.