Citizen humanities in Spain: exploring participation dynamics in historical research

Abstract This article analyses citizen humanities within research projects carried out in Spain or involving Spanish participation. To this end, it applies a classification process based on two ad hoc models: Public Participation Strategies (PPS) and Public Engagement Strategies (PES), both developed from multidisciplinary scientific literature on citizen science. The results reveal a growing interest within Spanish academia in incorporating public participation into humanities research projects, particularly in the field of history. They also show a clear preference for collaborative and contributory approaches, characterized by activities such as data entry, data enrichment, and source collection, as well as the use of social media to enhance public engagement. Overall, this study positions Spanish research in the humanities within the broader framework of the European Commission’s Open Science strategy.