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Letter: Citizen research

Published 25 July 2012

From Darwyn Sumner

Unpaid work in science may be more common than Rick Bradford imagines in his letter on open-access publishing (14 July, p 29). Amateur naturalists have been the bedrock of taxonomy, biogeography and conservation for centuries, and in some areas – such as long-term monitoring of animal populations – are the sole researchers.

Anstey, Leicestershire, UK

Issue no. 2875 published 28 July 2012

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