title: Lessons from Fraxinus, a crowd-sourced citizen science game in genomics.
abstract: In 2013, in response to an epidemic of ash dieback disease in England the previous year, we launched a Facebook-based game called Fraxinus to enable non-scientists to contribute to genomics studies of the pathogen that causes the disease and the ash trees that are devastated by it. Over a period of 51 weeks players were able to match computational alignments of genetic sequences in 78% of cases, and to improve them in 15% of cases. We also found that most players were only transiently interested in the game, and that the majority of the work done was performed by a small group of dedicated players. Based on our experiences we have built a linear model for the length of time that contributors are likely to donate to a crowd-sourced citizen science project. This model could serve a guide for the design and implementation of future crowd-sourced citizen science initiatives.
authors.affiliation: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ghanasyam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rallapalli
authors.affiliation: The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Diane Go
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.affiliation: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.affiliation: John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Lugo
authors.affiliation: Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Collin
authors.affiliation: The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Clavijo
authors.affiliation: The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corpas
authors.affiliation: The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Swarbreck
authors.affiliation: The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J Allan
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Downie
authors.affiliation: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sophien
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0290-0315
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamoun
authors.affiliation: The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: MacLean
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D004739:England; D031661:Fraxinus / Q000382:microbiology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
keywords: Hymenoscyphus fraxinea; ash; citizen science; computational biology; crowdsourcing; evolutionary biology; genomics; systems biology