Models

Our goal is to provide training opportunities of practical use of FAIR principles. We have selected and done the preliminary assessment of the FAIR criteria for a list of model publications that might resonate with different groups within the community. The list of initial models is a starting point, and we would like for other members of the community to suggest additional model publications. See below for more details on how this preliminary list of model publications was selected, and how to suggest a new model.

If you do not have access to the publication you would like to work on, please send a request for access to fair@comses.net.

Selecting a model and getting started

Each of the subpages is associated with one of the four categories of model publications preliminarily selected for this initiative. The subpage contains a table with each row corresponding to a model publication. The table lists:

• Current status in this initiative. Options include:
  • Not yet started
  • Looking for collaborators
  • In progress
  • Meets FAIR criteria!
    
    
• Link to a GitHub issue for the model (if work has begun on that model)
  • Note: a small selection of “Not yet started” models already have Github issue trackers associated with them, to illustrate how the process will look.
    
    
• Assessment scores of the five FAIR criteria (see here for more information on scoring)
  • Yes/No for the first three criteria
  • A-E for the last two criteria
  • Note that the fifth criteria was not able to be assessed if the code was unavailable (i.e., the first criterion is scored N).

How were the model publications selected?

Based on an analysis of 7500 agent-based modeling publications, we identified four areas of research in which there is substantial activity on agent-based modeling.

The four model categories are:

• Ecological systems and processes - theoretical and empirical models of ecosystems, from the gut to the global level.
• Land use - theoretical and empirical models of land use and land use change. Models may have a strong connection with GIS and cellular automata.
• Cooperation - largely theoretical models to stufy the evolution of cooperation and conflict among social biological actors.
• Crowds - theoretical and empirical models to study how groups, crowds, flocks, and swarms behave – including topics like escape dynamics, emergent patterns, and speed of crowd movements.

We used the keywords “agent based model”, “individual based model”, “computer simulation”, and “multi-agent” within each category to get a list of relevant papers in Scopus. We went through the list of most highly cited publications and selected the first 20 articles that meet the topic and present an agent-based model.

Can I suggest a model outside of the four categories?

We have a fifth “Open” category for which community members can submit model publications outside the four above categories. Since our focus is on model publications that have had some traction, we use an arbitrary threshold of >100 citations in Scopus to be considered for inclusion.

Additionally, we welcome groups to suggest their own list of 20-25 model publications on a different topic. This might be an opportunity to stimulate FAIR practices in your domain area.

If you have recommendations, please send the reference to fair@comses.net!