Invited MEE paper among the most downloaded

I was delighted to learn that my invited paper, with Ali Johnston, St Andrews, and Emily Dennis, Butterfly Conservation, in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, “Outstanding challenges and future directions for biodiversity monitoring using citizen science data”, was one of the most downloaded articles in its first 12 months after publication.

The paper was written as a perspective on where biodiversity monitoring using citizen science data currently stands, and where methodological developments are most urgently needed. Citizen science datasets now play a central role in monitoring ecological change, but they also pose substantial statistical challenges, including imperfect detection, observer bias, spatial and temporal imbalance, and changing participation over time.

Rather than treating these features as limitations, the paper argues that they should be seen as opportunities for methodological innovation. A key theme is the importance of explicitly modelling the data-generating process in order to separate ecological signals from observation processes, and of borrowing strength across space, time and species. The paper also highlights the growing need to integrate citizen science data with other sources, such as structured surveys, remote sensing and emerging DNA-based approaches.

The paper is available here:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13834