On the Quality of a Social Simulation Model: A Lifecycle Framework - Advances in Social Simulation - page 21

4 Summary
Computational social science arises from a number of research traditions that
have roots in The Enlightenment and even earlier origins in Aristotle's compar-
ative analysis of social systems. Therefore, our existing standards of scientific
quality and excellence have been inherited through the history and philosophy
of science in terms of basic principles, such as formalization, testing, replication,
and dissemination.
More specifically, the properties of Truth, Beauty, and Justice proposed for
mathematical social science (Lave and March, 1993) in an earlier generation re-
main equally valid quality criteria for assessing social simulation models. But
useful as such classic standards of quality may be, social computing adds new
scientific features (e.g., emphasis on understanding complex adaptive systems,
object-oriented ontologies, network structures that can evolve in time, nonlinear
dynamics) that require development as new standards for quality evaluation. So-
cial simulation models in particular (e.g., agent-based modeling) require further
specific requirements for judging quality. This paper proposed a set criteria for
discerning quality in social simulations, especially agent-based models, based on
universal stages of simulation model development. These criteria are offered as
an initial heuristic framework to consider and develop as a work-in-progress, not
as a finalized set of fixed criteria.
Acknowledgements. Funding for this study was provided by the Center for
Social Complexity of George Mason University and by ONR MURI grant no.
N00014-08-1-0921. Thanks to members of the Mason-Yale Joint Project on East-
ern Africa (MURI Team) for discussions and comments, and to Joseph Harrison
for converting the earlier LaTeX article into LNCS style. The opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors. This paper is
dedicated to the memory of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who lived at the Hotel
de Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris, where this paper originated during the 2010
Quality Commons workshop.
References
1. Ambler, S.W.: The Elements of UML 2.0 Style. Cambridge University Press, Cam-
bridge (2005)
2. Cio -Revilla, C.: Simplicity and Reality in Computational Modeling of Politics.
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 15(1), 26-46 (2008)
3. Cio -Revilla, C.: On the Methodology of Complex Social Simulations. Journal of
Artificial Societies and Social Simulations 13(1), 7 (2010)
4. Cio -Revilla, C.: Comparing Agent-Based Computational Simulation Models in
Cross-Cultural Research. Cross-Cultural Research 45(2), 1-23 (2011)