This past summer, we announced a partnership to form a portal for fostering community science with six leading societies—the American Anthropological Association (AAA), American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Public Health Association (APHA), Citizen Science Association (CSA)and Unión Geofísica Mexicana (UGM)—with the further support and partnership of the research and learning publishing company, Wiley.
Today, we are pleased to announce the inaugural editorial team for Community Science Exchange, made up of leading experts and thought leaders around community science who represent all the supporting societies. The web platform and journal are now open for various submissions and contributions.
Community Science Exchange is a new platform for advancing the practice and sharing the results of community science. Community science is the equitable collaboration of science with communities primarily aimed at outcomes for the benefit of communities. Work can be collaboratively or community-led.
The platform includes a journal, Community Science, as well as a related knowledge exchange for sharing diverse materials connected to community science. The multidisciplinary editorial team will be led by Kevin Noone with Deputy Editors Paula R. Buchanan for the Journal and Jean Schensul for the Knowledge Exchange. The journal will focus on research articles and commentaries, while the knowledge exchange welcomes a wide-range of media types including short-form written pieces, teaching and learning materials, videos, blogs, artistic representations, pointers to other content, and—in the future—dynamic discussions. Kevin highlights that, “with the journal and the knowledge exchange, we have the opportunity to enlarge the grammar of doing community science. Instead of just concentrating on the nouns, like our results, we can add verbs—the processes through which we collaboratively advance science in service to community priorities.”
The journal, according to Paula, will “include community science research in a peer-reviewed publication that is also open access and available to the public.” Jennifer Shirk, Executive Director of the Citizen Science Association and member of our advisory board, adds, “many excellent research results from partnerships merit publication and yet may not find a home in disciplinary science journals. Community Science provides a space for those results.” The journal will also collaborate with other publications to elevate research about community science. A generous fee waiver program will ensure that anyone whose contributions are accepted in the journal will be able to publish their work.
Jean Schensul emphasizes that, “The knowledge exchange will bring diverse communities and researchers together to solve critical social, health, and environmental challenges to share their voices.” The overall platform, she adds, aims to help “democratize science—making science a valued, accessible, and meaningful way of solving problems that affect all communities, especially those that may not have access to scientists but are experiencing very significant impacts of economic marginalization, climate change, environmental pollution and related health problems.”
The three editors, along with a talented editorial team representing a broad range of scientific and community experience, are committed to building a platform that prioritizes needs of the communities, and advances scientific excellence, and demonstrates that science is a community.
Please join us in co-creating this new journal by submitting your work and sharing it with the world! Community Science Exchange welcomes important resources, news, opinions, project information, and articles about community science, as well as general questions. Further submission information is available here or inquire with the editorial team about the best way to share your work by gro.uga@icsytinummoc gniliame. Further developments around the site are planned, especially regarding making connections and finding community science collaborators. If you are interested or have ideas, please contact gro.uga@icsytinummoc.
- Raj Pandya, Matt Giampoala, and Brooks Hanson, American Geophysical Union
- Ed Liebow, American Anthropological Association
- Keith Seitter, American Meteorological Society
- Georges Benjamin, American Public Health Association
- Jennifer Shirk, Citizen Science Association
- Vanesa Magar Brunner, Unión Geofísica Mexicana