There are two roles for people who want to volunteer with the GENetic Engineering Risk Atlas: Science Spotters and Atlas Builders. Science Spotters search for more studies to add to the database, and Atlas Builders help with entering information about each study into the database. You do not have to be a scientist to be a volunteer! If you want to join our team, please send us an email using our contact form and select the “I want to help GENERA” option. Learn more about volunteering below.
Science Spotters
Every year, there are about 100-200 new studies that study risks of genetically engineered plants. In addition, we may have missed some older studies. We have to find them so they can be put in the Atlas. The easiest ways to find studies are to 1) check the appropriate journals, 2) search databases such as Pubmed or Web of Knowledge using common terms for research on genetically engineered crops, and 3) follow science news sources. If you see a study that is not in our Atlas, send us the link so we can add it, and we will be most grateful for your help!
We are considering having a sign-up list for Science Spotters in the future to help ensure that we cover as much of the literature as possible.
Atlas builders
Each study included in the Atlas must be downloaded, loaded into our reference manager, and the basic citation information needs to be filled out. Finally, we want to check the references of each study to see if there are any new studies to be found. You do not need to be a scientist to help with these important steps, although it can help because scientists may be more familiar with where citation information is located in a paper. Become an Atlas Builder and you may be rewarded with special gifts. The more studies you can find or enter into the database the more cool stuff you can get!
Remember – you do not need to be a scientist to volunteer as an Atlas builder – you will not need to read and evaluate the studies – we do that part!
If you want to help us build the Atlas, please send us an email using our contact form and select the “I want to help GENERA” option.
Donate
If you instead wish to donate to the GENERA project, see our Donation page.