Noah Evans
Towards a Sustainable Science:
Equity and Justice through
Citizen Science and Open-Source Data
The paradigm of modern scientific research is largely dominated by well-funded universities and private corporations which hide the results of their studies behind paywalls or in expensive journals. Conversely, citizen scientists and individuals with special interests have shown a capability to collect, organize, and analyze data that can be readily utilized by governments or other organizations. The democratization of scientific research would allow both amateurs and aspiring professionals alike to further contribute to the breadth of scientific knowledge by building upon research completed with the benefit of external funding. Furthermore, networks of citizen scientists can more thoroughly and robustly collect data across wide spatial and temporal ranges, an invaluable methodology in the face of a changing climate and continued human interference in ecologies around the world. This paper aims to analyze the philosophical and politico-economic ideologies that undergird modern science, imagine alternatives which instead aim to maximize the wellbeing of individuals, and to develop methods of scientific inquiry that are more sustainable, accessible, and just.