Call: Special Issue on Citizen Science and SDGs

A special issue on “Citizen Science and the Role in Sustainable Development” in the journal “Sustainability” is in its first steps and is looking for your contribution towards it. 

This Special Issue aims to discuss the role citizen science (CS) can play in monitoring and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The deadline to submit a manuscript is 30 July 2020. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. 

Background:

The Stockholm Environment Institute has stated in its discussion brief that citizen science can contribute to the SDGs by defining targets and metrics on different levels, monitoring progress and implementing action. In particular, citizen science projects can play an important role in providing the data needed to monitor progress towards the SDGs. Moreover, citizen science can facilitate the implementation of the SDGs and become an integral part of social innovation, transformation, and behavioural change.

We envisage this Special Issue becoming a cornerstone of the scientific literature, which illustrates the potential of citizen science in the SDG process. We are interested in receiving papers from all disciplines which illustrate via case studies and existing projects how CS contributes to achieving the SDGs on a local, regional, and national level. We also welcome contributions which outline the future potential of CS and the role it can play in reaching the SDGs. We are furthermore interested in contributions which showcase the link of CS and the potential of integrating it with other traditional and non-traditional data sources such as earth observation and big data in general. 

We invite you to contribute to this issue by submitting research articles or comprehensive reviews in various fields. Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.



You can find additional information on the special issue and the publishing house MDPI here. 

This text was written by the guest editors:

Florian Heigl (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Citizen Science Network Austria), Steffen Fritz (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria), Daniel Dörler (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Citizen Science Network Austria)