The Reliability of Citizen Science Data: Testing A Data Set from eBird Türkiye with Benford’s Law

Authors : Çetin Çelik, Murat Afsar

Pages : 92-101

Doi:10.18466/cbayarfbe.1653292

View : 23 | Download : 129

Publication Date : 2025-12-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Citizen science is a rapidly evolving and increasingly popular field of scientific inquiry in which data are collected by volunteers (citizens). Applications of citizen science represent a growing data resource used by researchers, nature conservationists, and public institutions. Although citizen science data can make substantial contributions within the scope of Conservation Biology—particularly to the protection and management of biological diversity, ecosystems, and natural resources—concerns regarding data quality persist, despite the expanding potential of citizen science. Ensuring that data collected through citizen science efforts are accurate and reliable is crucial for conducting valid assessments in Conservation Biology and for enabling more effective conservation practices.In this study, we sought to test the accuracy of bird observation data gathered via the citizen science platform eBird Türkiye (http://www.ebird.org)—which contains observation counts for 533 bird species recorded in Türkiye—by applying Benford’s Law. Benford’s Law is a mathematical approach developed to analyze the distribution of numbers in data sets that may not have a strictly “natural” origin. Additionally, a Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit Test was conducted to detect differences between the observed (actual) values and the expected (Benford’s Law) values. The results indicate that the tested data from the eBird Türkiye platform conform to Benford’s Law.
Keywords : Benford Law, Conversation Biology, eBird, Citizen Science, Biodiversity

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