The Whitepaper on Co-Evaluation of Citizen Social Science presents its core set of 6 principles that CoAct has identified as highly relevant for implementing co-evaluation practices in citizen social science. They are intended to guide the participatory approach to project evaluation and to sharpen the focus for impact assessment.
The Whitepaper is based on the experiences collected over 30 months while implementing participatory evaluation practices in CoAct. When people engage in scientific processes, they are often personally affected by the research and its outcomes. This is especially true in citizen social science, where participants actively investigate and find solutions to challenges they face in their daily lives. This engagement, we are convinced, should be considered a possibility
throughout the research cycle, including research evaluation and impact assessment.
Particularly in such cases where people engage in research that affects their lifeworlds, they should be able to co-define the expected outcomes of the scientific process and reflect collectively on how the fulfilment of these expectations could be tracked and measured. So why not describe in a participative manner how project developments could be measured against different interests, and define collaboratively what proof of success may look like? Such an evaluation and impact assessment is not left exclusively to scientists and professional evaluators but actively includes all engaged actors of the scientific process as competent co-evaluator.
Here you find a description of the 6 co-evaluation principles and practical recommendations on how to follow the principles in practice.
Download the PDF from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7117123
