Research On The Evaluation Index System Of Gamification In Citizen Science Projects:A Scientific Crowdsourcing Perspective

With the wide spread of the concept of scientific crowdsourcing,citizen science projects have risen rapidly,which promote the new paradigm of open science.Facing the cold start of projects,the motivation analysis of participants and game design have gained much more acceptation from scholars.Although some scholars have given suggestions to public participation and incentive from gamification mode,the research on the citizen science gamification is still in the initial stage,which is lack of quantitative evaluation indicators.As an informal education project,the citizen science project can use achievements in education games.However,because of the particularity of citizen science,which is in order to meet the dual goals of science and education,it is necessary to reorganize the evaluation index system of gamification in citizen science projects and try to encourage everyone for effective task design and platform construction,so as to provide a theory foundation for the successful development of citizen science,which is in order to promote the development of citizen science in China.The main contents and contributions of this paper are as follows:(1)On the basis of literature review,this paper emphasizes the characteristics of"task-driven and goal-oriented" for citizen science projects.From the four dimensions of education,science,game and system,21 evaluation indexes are included in the evaluation index system of gamification in citizen science projects.Task dimension is as a guidance,which has representational expression in education,science and game.(2)This paper uses the analytic hierarchy process(AHP)and expert consultation method,with the aid of Yaahp software,to get the weights of the evaluation index system.The indicators of education dimension and scientific dimension have great weight and play important roles in the whole index system.At present,the experts pay more attention to the educational goals and scientific goals of gamification in citizen science projects.The game experience is auxiliary.At the same time,the easy use is the basis for the effective execution of game,and the effective incentive mechanism can promote the participants to use it better.(3)The non-emergent citizen science projects need game mechanism eagerly.By applying the existing evaluation index system to the Foldit project,this paper summarizes the shortcomings of game design in citizen science projects and the strategy of future game development.Because of meeting the dual goals of education and science,the overall score of Foldit is satisfactory.But it also has the common fault of citizen science projects,which is lack of game experience.In the future,we should continue to deepen the core aim of "task-driven and goal-oriented",rely on task situation to strengthen the game elements and improve the quality of the system,including functions and mechanisms in the game design of citizen science projects.There are some deficiencies in the paper.The selection of indicators is subjective.The application scenario of the evaluation index system has certain limitations.In the future research,we will pay more attention to the authority of the index selection,improve the science in the evaluation index system,meet the needs of different task situations and explore the effectiveness of the evaluation index system.