Model-To-Model Analysis

In recent years there has been an explosion of published literature utilising Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MABS) to study social, biological and artificial systems. This kind of work is evidenced within JASSS but is increasingly becoming part of mainstream practice across many disciplines. However, despite this plethora of interesting models, they are rarely compared, built-on or transferred between researchers. It would seem there is a dearth of "model-to-model" analysis. Rather researchers tend to work in isolation, designing all their models from scratch and reporting their results without anyone else reproducing what they found. Although the opposite extreme, where all that seems to happen is the next twist on an existing model, is not to be wished for, there are considerable dangers if everybody only works on their own model. Part of the reason for this is that models tend to be very seductive – especially to the person who has built the model. What is needed is a third person to check the results. However it is not always clear how people who are not the modeller can interpret or utilise such results, because it is very difficult to replicate simulation models from what is reported in papers. It was for these reasons that we called on the MABS community to submit papers for a model-to-model (M2M) workshop. The aim of the workshop was to gather researchers in MABS who were interested in understanding and furthering the transferability of knowledge between models. We received fourteen submissions from which (after a process of peer review) eight were presented at the workshop. Of the six articles that comprise this special issue, five were presented at the workshop.