I want to note that there are scholars with deep expertise in community-engaged participatory research and citizen science efforts who may take issue with my conceptualization of the Spit for Science project in these terms, since the project was not designed specifically with these principles in mind. I would agree with them that there is much room for continual improvement in how we engage our participants and our broader community in our research. I hope this will not detract from my broader point that all of us can borrow from the important lessons of these fields and think about how our own research could be informed, and hopefully improved, by applying some of their tenets. Why shouldn’t we make our research more engaging, relatable, and (gasp) fun?
