I need to develop the statement of the research problem section of my research paper. The thesis is about citizens centric smart cities and the importance of involving citizens in the designing and planning stages of smart cities development. Research Problem: Smart cities have been known to be cities adopting the latest ICT technologies and devices to provide innovative solutions. In order for smart cities to meet their objectives, citizens need to be involved as one of the main components/stakeholder of the cities' development. Many cities claim that they are citizen-centric, but citizens are barely or never involved in the design of the cities which sometimes causes many challenges in the operation of the city. For example; low technology awareness by the citizens, low usability rate of the cities technological services, low satisfaction levels. Citizen's must be involved from the beginning of the smart city development so that their needs are identified and incorporated in the planning phase of the city. If the citizen's needs are taken into account and implemented, the citizens would have a higher satisfaction level and the city developers can provide a better quality of living. It is important to point out that citizens are the core beneficiaries and stakeholders of smart cities and the citizen's needs must be placed at the heart of smart cities. (More details about the research problem is in the introduction section of the articles attached)