Citizen science, gallaxies and tropes: Knowledge creation in impromptu crowd science movements

This paper analyses two impromptu crowd science movements, comparing the TVTropes wiki community with the Bechdel Wallace test movement. Impromptu crowd science contributors engage in methodical knowledge creation, in absence of academic scientists' involvement. The two examples illustrate the potential of these movements to create data, analyses and concepts relevant for social and humanistic disciplines, and to inspire scholarly research.