[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11206-11207]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-05117]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-18-17AVB]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has submitted the information 
collection request titled ``Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster 
Citizen Science to Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster 
Response'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
approval. CDC previously published a ``Proposed Data Collection 
Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations'' notice on September 
19, 2017 to obtain comments from the public and affected agencies. CDC 
did not receive comments related to the previous notice. This notice 
serves to allow an additional 30 days for public and affected agency 
comments.
    CDC will accept all comments for this proposed information 
collection project. The Office of Management and Budget is particularly 
interested in comments that:
    (a) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    (b) Evaluate the accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (c) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    (d) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including, through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses; and
    (e) Assess information collection costs.
    To request additional information on the proposed project or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, call 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Direct written comments 
and/or suggestions regarding the items contained in this notice to the 
Attention: CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th 
Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 395-5806. Provide 
written comments within 30 days of notice publication.

Proposed Project

    Leveraging the Emerging Field of Disaster Citizen Science to 
Enhance Community Resilience and Improve Disaster Response--New--Office 
of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The information collection for which approval is sought is in 
accordance with OPHPR's mission to safeguard health and save lives by 
providing a platform for public health preparedness and emergency 
response. As part of its role, OPHPR is empowered to fund applied 
research to improve the ability of CDC and its partners, including but 
not limited to state and local health departments, emergency management 
organizations, and health care entities, to effectively prepare for and 
respond to public health emergencies and disasters.
    Citizen science is defined as research activities (e.g., data 
collection, analysis, and reporting) performed by members of the 
general public without any particular training in science. Citizen 
science is growing in popularity, fueled in part by growing use of 
smartphones and other personal devices in the population. Although 
citizen collection and use of data during disasters has increased 
exponentially in recent years and there is great policy interest in the 
phenomenon, there has been no robust research to date on the use of, 
barriers to, and impact of citizen science in disasters. Local health 
departments (LHDs) lack tools to respond to and coordinate with citizen 
science activities within communities. Furthermore, citizen science 
organizations lack information on how to organize their activities for 
ultimate impact.
    This is an exploratory study and is the first of its kind to 
explore the growing phenomenon of disaster citizen science. Disaster 
citizen science is a rapidly growing field that is the focus of policy 
interest, but currently devoid of research. While interviews will be 
hypothesis generating and provide rich data on the experiences with 
citizen science to date across all stakeholders active in this 
enterprise, the nationally-representative survey data will allow us to 
generalize findings to the full population of LHDs in the U.S.
    CDC requests approval of a new information collection to learn 
about how the emerging field of disaster citizen science can enhance 
community resilience for a period of 1 year. This (mixed methods) 
information collection using interviews and a cross-sectional survey 
aims to: (1) Explore the potential of disaster citizen science for 
increasing community resilience, enhancing participation in 
preparedness and response activities, and improving preparedness 
efforts; and (2) provide evidence to inform the development of 
educational and instructional tools for communities and health 
departments to navigate the emerging field of disaster citizen science 
and promote collaborations. Insights from this information collection 
will be used to inform the development of guidance and toolkits for 
LHDs and community groups so that they can align their efforts and 
strengthen the benefits and positive impacts of citizen science 
activities. For interviews, the information collection will target 
citizen scientists and end users of citizen science data.
    This information collection will be implemented in collaboration 
with a contractor and will target citizen scientists and their partners 
(e.g., academics who work with citizen scientists on research projects) 
and LHDs in a position to use citizen science data to inform public 
health decision-making. For interviews, researchers will sample for 
maximum variation, seeking to obtain variation on U.S. region, type and 
sophistication of citizen science project, type of disaster 
encountered, and previous experience with disaster citizen science.
    The project aims to conduct 35-55 facilitated, semi-structured, 
individual and group interviews, each lasting approximately 60 minutes, 
to cover topics including benefits and uses of citizen science, 
barriers to and facilitators of citizen science, and strengths and 
limitations of citizen science activities and resources.
    Researchers will identify potential interview participants through 
literature reviews and snowball sampling in a phased approach starting 
with citizen science and LHD organizations.
    The project will sample for maximum variation in order to capture 
the full range of citizen scientist and health department experiences 
on this topic. For the survey, the project aims to obtain a nationally 
representative sample of 600 local health officials and will apply 
survey weights to ensure that

[[Page 11207]]

findings have external validity and can be generalized to LHDs in the 
U.S. The survey, which will take 30 minutes to complete, will include 
questions on both citizen science as applied to disaster preparedness 
and response, and citizen science as occurring in other contexts (such 
as environmental health) to draw lessons for preparedness and response.
    CDC anticipates that the knowledge resulting from this research 
project will contribute significantly to the evidence base for 
preparedness and response and lead to improved efficiency, 
effectiveness, and outcomes in several domains.
    Participation in this study is completely voluntary. There are no 
costs to respondents other than their time. A summary of annualized 
burden hours is below. The total estimated burden hours is 219 hours.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                     Number of    Average burden
          Type of respondents                   Form name            Number of     responses per   per response
                                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizen scientists and their partners;  Interview Guide (semi-                55               1           75/60
 local health officials.                 structured
                                         questionnaire).
Local health departments..............  Survey..................             300               1           30/60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2018-05117 Filed 3-13-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P