Hi everyone! I'm brand new to the Zooniverse - caught wind of it over at Tomnod.

I've been passionate about the environment, biology, and earth sciences for as long as I can remember, and while I ultimately decided not to pursue a career directly in those areas, I've always tried to participate and volunteer in the fields. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do volunteering in those areas lately due to other life circumstances, so I'm excited to cross over here!

I work as a website editor and I'm a hobby artist across multiple media, so I tend to like these sites where I can volunteer on a relaxed, to-my-schedule basis!

The quote you put as mine is actually from @earthlike . I agree that more people should study STEM subjects, without refraining to do what they like, with that knowledge being used exclusively to develop inventions with a positive impact on society (this is unlikely to happen unfortunately).

However, I'm sure that the cause to the problem of less people choosing STEM subjects isn't students attending global protests intended at encouraging action to prevent a worst-case climate change situation. The real cause is the educational system that has been used for endless decades and continues to exist in most school institutions, teaching students science in a mechanical manner as if they were robots. This is extremely discouraging and destroys any drop of passion for science that may have been there, having therefore no future prospects for a STEM career, unless you have a source outside school (this includes books and the internet) that shows you science as it is: a fascinating field with no limits and has nothing in common with what you were previously taught, making you see that the problem isn't science, but the way it's being taught.

I say this from my personal experience. Anyways, this is a debate aside, nevertheless one of a huge importance.

In the Zooinverse blog, there are quite a few posts about "jobs with the Zooniverse"; for example:

• (2010) Filling in the background
• (2011) We’re hiring again
• (2013) We’re hiring – come help us build citizen history
  
• (2013) Want to work with the Zooniverse?
• (2014) New Zooniverse digital humanities job
• (2014) The most important job in the Zooniverse
• (2014) Do you have what it takes to be a Zoomanities Developer?

This thread, I hope, will be about something quite different; namely, what volunteer roles (and hence "career") you could have, within the Zooniverse.

The first role, and arguably the most important, is one all ~1.5 million of us have, citizen scientist' ... I click, I classify, I transcribe; ergo I am a citizen scientist.

Perhaps a role that is just as 'old' is moderator; it goes back to the earliest days of the Galaxy Zoo forum (now archived), and is pretty much the same as what it is in any internet (discussion) forum (yes, there are aspects of the v2 (Ouroboros) and v3 (Panoptes) Talks which make it somewhat different). There may be a hierarchy of moderators; this source mentions "head moderator" and "the lead moderator".

Next, chronologically, may be Science Team member; the first examples are (as far as I know) the Space Warps team (see the SW blog post, A Postcard from Zurich).

Also, starting several years' ago, there's co-author (of a paper published in a relevant, peer-reviewed, journal). Citizen scientists who are active members of a Z Project's Science Team are always (?) co-authors of that project's main papers. But you can be a co-author without being on a Science Team. The PH blog post A Newly Confirmed Planet and 42 Additional Planet Candidates Part 2 gives some idea of this role.

There's also workshop participant, a role in which you represent (perhaps a subset of) volunteers at an official Zooniverse workshop. Some examples are outlined in these Z blog posts: Zooniverse Teacher Ambassadors Workshop, Project Workshop Winners, Voyage to Teaching in the Zooniverse – A Teacher Workshop in Chicago.

Some volunteers have also been blog post writers, mostly second-hand (a blog editor copy/pastes their material into the blog). Example, Budgieye's NGC7252: The Atoms-For-Peace Galaxy.

Perhaps the rarest role, and one that's a bit outside the Zooniverse, is CSA Advisory Board member (CSA: Citizen Science Alliance; "Our projects live within the ‘Zooniverse’, the home of Citizen Science on the web"). It seems that there are only two volunteers in this role, Alice Sheppard and Julia Wilkinson (source).

Other roles? There are surely some; for example "beta testers", volunteers who "beta test" new Z projects (you can become one by first selecting "Get beta project email updates" in the Email part of your Settings, then joining a beta test when you're notified).

Are there other roles? In your Zooniverse career, could you realistically aspire to all/any of the roles?

What do you think?

This is a great thread!

I have a somewhat related question, or set of questions; I hope Pmason and trouille can provide at least pointer to answers.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum to the teens and young adults who are planning their academic careers/degree paths are the 'mature age' folk (yes, I am one). Many are (long) retired from their working careers; most are very enthusiastic; many have (long unused) BScs, MScs, even PhDs; and some, unfortunately, are essentially home-bound. Zooniverse projects are a real boon for them, particularly if they are in areas of fascination (yes, that's me; extragalactic astronomy!)

But when it comes to going beyond merely clicking/classifying/transcribing/etc, well, obstacles abound. What university would give even a second's thought to a mature age someone with a chronic health condition, whose BSc was awarded 40+ years' ago? How realistic is Summer Work for such a someone? Independent research? Paywalls! Even the Zooniverse created Letters ('amateur papers') has now been taken offline!

Thoughts?

Hello Morgan, welcome to the zooniverse. I'm a physics and nature nerd with low maths skills. My dream career would be in astrophysics, so the space projects are a very welcome opportunity to delve and contribute. Have fun

New subject_ids are definitely more recent so they did upload more subjects in the same workflow. Also the retirement limit has been dropped from 15 to a more reasonable 5. I heard unofficially there may have been personnel changes at the collaborators level due to changing jobs and career advancement.

I suspect, but have no valid proof, that this is another project that sounded very good in principle, but was just added onto people with already heavy workloads and so is given little time for interaction with the volunteers - In that it would not be at all unusual! It is frustrating though, and such projects never reach their full potential.

Has anyone added their transcriptions through the projects on Zooniverse to a resume? Moreover, is putting crowdsourcing on a resume a good idea? The transcriptions I have done (through two projects) pertain to my career field so I am just wondering. Thanks!

Publications are only one measure of a project's value. Many transcription project have no publications but are rather for building searchable data bases for specific collections. Many smaller projects are part of a graduate student' s research and thesis - which while "published" within a institute, are unlikely to be widely disseminated, and are seldom earth shattering - other than for the newly fledged scientist that then has a entire career to do worthwhile things.

And many projects end in abysmal failure with no publication, and sometimes, no useful data. As with any grant funded entity zooniverse must concentrate of the positives so I would not expect a neat list of failure/failing projects to appear.

The challenge for volunteers is to evaluate the worth of the time they will invest - it is not easy to see which projects will produce new knowledge. Some guidelines though -

• the project team clearly states the goals and purpose of the project - ie what exactly will the data tell them, and what it is for.
• the project team is active and responsive in the forums - if the team is active they believe in the project and have skin in the game.
• if the team is producing other useful science or value through other endeavors outside of zooniverse, the more likely what they are doing in zoonivers has value - otherwise they would not be wasting resources.
• if a project is evolving - eg it is being passed from one set of team members to new blood (usually another student) it generally means the project is producing sufficiently useful results to keep it running.

On the other hand REDFLAGS that a project is going nowhere:

• The team is absent and the project is on autopilot.
• questions asked in the forum do not get definite answers or there are repeated cases where the correct responses are in doubt and you as a volunteer can't really tell how to answer - in many projects that fail, the root problem is that the tasks are beyond the capabilities of lay volunteers and there is no adequate level of consensus. This is not just for small projects! Even large well run projects will occasionally try workflows that don't pan out - the difference is a well run project tracks the performance closely and does not run for 673000 classifications before abandoning the project. But generally if you can't answer decisively or agree with the responses in the talk pages I don't recommend you classify in that project.
• the subject set size is huge compared to the classification rate. If it is going to be years until a subject set is complete how can the team know they are getting good data until a huge amount of effort has been spent? Most good productive projects are completed in stages with results available for previous stages.
• the instructions are not clear, questions on how to do something are not precisely answered. Teams that don't know exactly what they want and define that clearly are set up for failure - aggregation of crowd sourced data relies critically on everyone doing it the exactly the same. There is no room for volunteers to do it their own way - there must be a clear correct way to respond. Specifically transcription task instructions should state exactly how to transcribe (eg verbatim, using fixed format, exactly how to handle short forms and initials, punctuation, spacing , or line breaks.) I would avoid any project where you are not sure you are doing it correctly due to a lack of instructions or examples.
• I would avoid any project where there is an expectation that someone will review the work of the volunteers and "fix things". This is especially true of projects where it it suggested that someone will verify the volunteers findings and volunteers discuss marking things or selecting choices just so the team won't miss something important. Few projects have that level of verification. I know some at least transcription projects fail under the weight of the corrections that are required after the data is collected.
• avoid projects that offer generalized choices or otherwise multiple valid options for the same subject. My experience is these do not end well. You may not like it as a volunteer but crowd sourcing works best when volunteers are forced to make a call - difficult or impossible subjects can then be identified by vote splitting over a very limited number of specific choices. Easy outs like "Possibly something" or "Unknown" or vague choices like "Small mammal" as an alternate to choosing Rabbit, Squirrel, Mouse, or some other *definite choice are likely to produce useless data and are usually a strong sign that earlier (beta test) data was not analyzed and the team is sailing blindly onto rock shoals.

Your message was dated 2022 Sept, and talked about "summer" which would be this year (2023) so I thought I'd reply. I checked to see if they still exist (I'm rather past the sophomore stage in anything ) and they do -- looks like Candy Stripers started in the US of A. This may or may not suit you, because it's volunteer work, but if you have a hospital nearby, maybe reading article this will lead to something.
https://www.volunteerfdip.org/a-journey-of-hospital-volunteers-in-united-states

COVID has changed a lot (our hospital still has no visitors, and doorkeepers to ensure that all who enter are on legitimate medical tasks). Many professions want "demonstrated interest" in their field, not just "stated interest", so volunteering may help decide your career choice(s). Thank you for your interest in a service career.

In reply to Darren "DZM" McRoy's comment:

In reply to paul goggins's comment:
Is there a historical list out there of all "likely planet candidates" and their discoverers?

Hey @paul_goggins -- sorry if I was unclear when I replied to your email. I meant the Planet Hunters Talk, not the Zooniverse one. That'll be the best place to get a response.

I suspect this kind of confusion will be not rare, especially for those zooites whose involvement in Z projects has been relatively modest and/or sporadic (and for every zooite like paul_groggins who posts here, there are likely ~ten who have experienced a similar problem but didn't post; that's a rule of thumb I vaguely remember from a previous career ...).

How do deal with it though? Not now - too many bugs being squashed - but when things settle down/perhaps we could start a discussion on this!