Document is current

Article History

Received: 24 July 2025

Accepted: 3 November 2025

First Online: 24 December 2025

Declarations

:

: Participation in Earthworm Watch was entirely voluntary. The Earthworm Watch website provided a clear privacy notice that informed potential participants about the nature and purpose of the data collection. This notice explicitly stated that by submitting data, participants were giving informed consent for their contributions to be used for scientific research purposes. Participants were not required to provide personal information, and responses to demographic questions - gender, age, and reasons for participating - were entirely optional. Email addresses were collected solely for communication purposes during the project and were securely deleted upon its completion. All other data were anonymised before analysis to ensure participant confidentiality. This research was conducted in 2016–2018 and complied with the data protection legislation in force at the time, including the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

: Not applicable.

: Grammarly software (Grammarly, Inc.), ChatGPT and CoPilot were used to check grammar and spelling during the preparation of the manuscript.

: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Victoria J. Burton reports that financial support was provided by the Natural Environment Research Council. Victoria J. Burton reports that financial support was provided by the British Ecological Society.