“Gerasim-at-home” and prospects for a national CS platform. Review of the book “Citizen Science: Let’s Do Research Together”

The review emphasizes the importance of the monograph “Citizen Science: Let’s Do Research Together”. The team of authors shares their experience in creating the first Russian national platform “People of Science” for citizen science (CS) projects. The platform operated from 2021 to 2023 and became an important CS aggregator. The book clarifies the role of volunteering in modern science projects, outlines the foundations of this research form and introduces concepts related to the collaboration between scientists and the public. The authors propose a new classification of citizen science projects taking into account the types of activities of scientific volunteers. One of the first Russian projects mentioned is the volunteer computing project Gerasim@Home. The book offers practical recommendations for citizen science managers, including methods for recruiting and retaining volunteers, as well as principles for organizing project infrastructure. The results of the activities of the “People of Science” platform show a significant increase in the number of volunteers and the volume of data collected. The authors estimate that the number of scientific volunteers in Russia will reach 100,000 people. This will strengthen the public need for modern CS aggregators.

citizen science, citizen science, distributed project management, public understanding of science, dynamics of volunteer motivation, national aggregators, science communication