Conflicts of interest in citizen science
InstructionsConflicts of interest in citizen science
- Understand the concept of conflict of interest and how to deal with it.
- Recognise and disclose financial and non-financial conflicts of interest in the context of citizen science.
Introduction
Conflict of interest can happen in a variety of human activities, but in some areas such as science and research, it is especially important, because it erodes objectivity – one of the central virtues of scientific research. A recent review revealed that industry-sponsored studies are more often in favour of the sponsors’ products compared with studies with other sources of funding (Lundh et al., 2017). Because of the effect it can potentially have on research, scientific journals require a separate declaration of conflict of interest when submitting scientific articles. The issue of conflict of interest is especially relevant in the context of citizen science due to the nature of some of its projects. Namely, some citizen science projects are citizen-initiated and therefore the investigators might have an inherent conflict of interest which in turn might prevent them from seeing their study in a more objective light.
References
- Lundh, A., Lexchin, J., Mintzes, B., Schroll, J. B., & Bero, L. (2017). Industry sponsorship and research outcome. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.MR000033.pub3
Key Issues
The term “conflict of interest” refers to situations where a person or an organisation has more than one interest (personal, professional, financial, etc.) and pursuing one of them could potentially involve conflict with others. There are two main types of conflicts of interest – financial and non-financial. An example of a financial conflict of interest is a physician who works for a pharmaceutical company that produces medicine for the same group of patients that she treats. In this case physician’s interest in earning more money conflicts with her role as a physician whose main duty is to find and prescribe the best available treatment to each patient. An example of a non-financial conflict of interest is a scientist whose personal beliefs or affiliations may impact the interpretation of his research findings. The same applies to a scientist who makes a biased hypothesis that tends to support her preferred theory.
It is important to note that conflict of interests also includes the potential for conflict, and these should always be declared. Whether financial or non-financial conflicts of interests threaten the core virtue of scientific enterprise as it interferes with the role of the scientist as a seeker of truth. Besides that, it also might undermine the public’s trust in science.
Investigators in citizen science projects might not have their pet theory that they might want to see proven true. However, laypeople who are involved in collaboration with scientists might have some political or personal interests that motivate them to participate in the research in the first place. For example, a person might have some strong beliefs about an environmental issue, and she might see involvement in the research as a way of solving the problem. There is some evidence that one of the key reasons why some citizen scientists engage in helping researchers to collect data is to advance their political aims (Riesch & Potter, 2014). These non-financial conflicts of interest might be more common in citizen science than financial conflicts of interest. An example of the latter would be a citizen scientist who receives funding from an environmental group or serves on its board of directors.
A common strategy for dealing with conflicts of interest is to declare them. Although by itself it will not solve all the problems, timely disclosure of a potential conflict of interest avoids situations where the conflict is discovered after the fact. Thus, one might avoid suspicions and loss of trust (Resnik, 2015). The importance of a potential conflict of interests may vary, some might be negligible, and some, on the other hand, very severe. Whatever the case, it is always better to inform about it upfront. One unique problem with this strategy in the context of citizen science is that lead investigators of a study might have to deal with a large number of such disclosures as many citizen scientists might be involved in the study and sharing all this information might be impractical. One strategy to solve the problem could be to disclose the conflict of interest in aggregate (Resnik, 2015). Another strategy, how one can deal with damage, that might be caused by a conflict of interests is to make all the data publicly available. This enables everybody to analyse the data and assess the results independently (Resnik, 2015).
References
- Riesch, H., & Potter, C. (2014). Citizen science as seen by scientists: Methodological, epistemological and ethical dimensions. Public Understanding of Science, 23(1), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662513497324
- Resnik, D. B., Elliott, K. C., & Miller, A. K. (2015). A framework for addressing ethical issues in citizen science. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 475–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.008
Case Study
Watch the interactive video below and complete the exercises!
Remarks
Additional Resources
- The Embassy of Good Science: "Conflict of interest"
- Macey, G. P., Breech, R., Chernaik, M., Cox, C., Larson, D., Thomas, D., & Carpenter, D. O. (2014). Air concentrations of volatile compounds near oil and gas production: a community-based exploratory study. Environmental Health, 13(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-13-82
- Resnik, D. B., Elliott, K. C., & Miller, A. K. (2015). A framework for addressing ethical issues in citizen science. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 475-481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.008
