Personal Science

Personal science is a term used by the late psychologist and scientist Seth Roberts, who defined it as: "using science to solve your own problems".^[1] Associated fields are self-experimentation and citizen science. The concept has been further developed within the Quantified Self community. The first use of the term in a scientific publication was in 2016,^[2] where it was associated with: "an interest in collecting data about their own bodies or lives in order to obtain insights into their everyday health or performance". In 2017, the scientific journal Methods of Information in Medicine published a focus theme on single subject (N-of-1) research design, which also included personal science. The editorial introducing the focus theme is titled "Single Subject (N-of-1) Research Design, Data Processing, and Personal Science"^[3] is co-authored by Gary Wolf, who together with Kevin Kelly coined the phrase the quantified self. In the editorial, personal science was described as "self-directed N-of-1 studies". In 2020, Wolf further developed the term together with Martijn de Groot in an article titled "A Conceptual Framework for Personal Science".^[4] They defined personal science as "the practice of using empirical methods to explore personal questions". In a 2021 scientific article building on the previous ones, personal science is defined as: "the practice of exploring personally consequential questions by conducting self-directed N-of-1 studies using a structured empirical approach".^[5]