Aristeidou, Maria, Eileen Scanlon, and Mike Sharples. "Profiles of engagement in online communities of citizen science participation." Computers in Human Behavior 74 (2017): 246-256.

This study delves into the dynamics of citizen participation in online scientific communities, with a special focus on enhancing engagement to maximize learning, scientific contributions, and societal impact. Unlike previous research that mainly examines data contribution by citizens, this investigation centers on communities that empower citizens to conduct their own scientific inquiries. Utilizing data from log files and questionnaires, the study assesses various engagement dimensions including metrics, roles, motivation, attitude, satisfaction, and sense of belonging. The findings enable a comparison of engagement across different types of citizen participation communities and facilitate the classification of members based on their engagement profiles and behavior patterns. The results underscore the importance of tailored design approaches to accommodate the unique needs of various types of citizen participation communities and individual engagement profiles.