By With a CitSci account, you can personalize your profile and stay up to date on various projects you are involved in. Your user profile records all your activity through CitSci, and can be a helpful tool for tracking your past and current work with different projects. In this tutorial, we will navigate volunteer profiles and how you can locate information in your account.
STEP 1: Finding your profile
To find your user project profile, click on the link with your name in the top right corner of the screen. From here, a drop down option should appear with the first option being My Profile. Click on My Profile and you will be directed to your project profile.
ProTip: Your project profile will be titled My Profile.
STEP 2: Personal Information
Your personal identification information can be found right below your member name in the middle of the page. Click on the drop down tab Show More to view your personal information.
Editing your personal information
To edit your personal information, click on the Edit Profile link. The information saved in CitSci is from the initial creation of your account and you can change it here any time.
ProTip: You can edit the password for your account or the photo displayed by your account by clicking Edit Password or Edit Photo at the bottom of the edit profile page.
STEP 3: Home Page
You can find the home page of your project profile by clicking on the tab that has a house icon. Under this tab, you can find an archive of all your activity with CitSci projects.
Measurements
This number describes the number of measurements you have contributed to projects within CitSci.
Observations
This number describes the number of observations you have contributed to projects within CitSci.
Locations
This number describes how many locations you have tagged during data collection for projects within CitSci.
Pictures
This number describes how many photos you have uploaded to projects within CitSci.
STEP 4: My Projects
You can find your projects tab right next to your profile home page. This section of your profile will list any projects you are managing as well as projects you have joined on CitSci. Click on different projects to see more information about them.
ProTip: As a project manager, you can see the number of observations logged in your CitSci project by looking at the number in the lower right hand corner of the project’s icon.
STEP 5: My Observations
Under the My Observations Tab, you can view an archive of all the observations you have logged in projects on CitSci. Observations are listed from newest to oldest, with the most recent observations being listed first.
ProTip: Click on the date of any observation to view more information.
STEP 6: My Locations
You can view an archive of all the locations you have tagged for projects in CitSci under the My Locations tab. Locations are described with the name of your tagged location, its recorded latitude and longitude as well as the number of observations associated with that location.
ProTip: Click on the name of any location to view more information.
STEP 7: My Preferences
Under the My Preferences tab, you can edit different actions and services provided by your CitSci account. All preferences can be turned on or off at any time. A preference is on when it is blue and has a check mark icon and is off then it is grey and has an X icon.
Newsletter
The newsletter preference allows you to have the monthly CitSci newsletter sent directly to your email.
SciStarter
The SciStarter preferences gives you the option to have your CitSci observations shared with a third party organization called SciStarter. Click on the SciStarter link to learn more about this citizen science organization.
Forums
The forum’s preference allows you to choose whether or not you want to have an email notification when a project you are participating in makes a new post.
Observations
The observation’s preference allows you to choose whether or not you want to have an email notification when a project you are participating in has a new observation uploaded.
Have questions about how your data will be used?
Please read the CitSci data use and privacy policies for details about how your data are used to advance scientific discovery. CitSci data are licensed under a CC-BY 3.0 License.
Are user profiles for volunteers and project managers different?
At this time, user profiles for project managers and volunteers (members) provide the same information. Additional project manager tools can be found on the Project Profile page.
Overall, your User Profile provides a concise summary of your history and activity in CitSci. Use this tool to track your progress in CitSci, and take pride in your contributions to science!
Banner Image: Janeb13, Pixabay
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