By Edmund Chattoe-Brown
The Motivation
Research that confronts models with data is still sufficiently rare that it is hard to get a representative sense of how it is done and how convincing the results are simply by “background reading”. One way to advance good quality empirical modelling is therefore simply to make it more visible in quantity. With this in mind I have constructed (building on the work of Angus and Hassani-Mahmooei 2015) the first version of a bibliography listing all ABM attempting empirical validation in JASSS between 1998 and 2019 (along with a few other example) – which generates 68 items in all. Each entry gives a full reference and also describes what comparisons are made and where in the article they occur. In addition the document contains a provisional bibliography of articles giving advice or technical support to validation and lists three survey articles that categorise large samples of simulations by their relationships to data (which served as actual or potential sources for the bibliography).
With thanks to Bruce Edmonds, this first version of the bibliography has been made available as a Centre for Policy Modelling Discussion Paper CPM-20-216, which can be downloaded http://cfpm.org/discussionpapers/256.
The Argument
It may seem quite surprising to focus only on validation initially but there is an argument (Chattoe-Brown 2019) which says that this is a more fundamental challenge to the quality of a model than calibration. A model that cannot track real data well, even when its parameters are tuned to do so is clearly a fundamentally inadequate model. Only once some measure of validation has been achieved can we decide how “convincing” it is (comparing independent empirical calibration with parameter tuning for example). Arguably, without validation, we cannot really be sure whether a model tells us anything about the real world at all (no matter how plausible any narrative about its assumptions may appear). This can be seen as a consequence of the arguments about complexity routinely made by ABM practitioners as the plausibility of the assumptions does not map intuitively onto the plausibility of the outputs.
The Uses
Although these are covered in the preface to the bibliography in greater detail, such a sample has a number of scientific uses which I hope will form the basis for further research.
- To identify (and justify) good and bad practice, thus promoting good practice.
- To identify (and then perhaps fill) gaps in the set of technical tools needed to support validation (for example involving particular sorts of data).
- To test the feasibility and value of general advice offered on validation to date and refine it in the face of practical challenges faced by analysis of real cases.
- To allow new models to demonstrably outperform the levels of validation achieved by existing models (thus creating the possibility for progressive empirical research in ABM).
- To support agreement about the effective use of the term validation and to distinguish it from related concepts (like verification) and potentially unhelpful (for example ambiguous or rhetorically loaded) uses
The Plan
Because of the labour involved and the diversity of fields in which ABM have now been used over several decades, an effective bibliography on this kind cannot be the work of a single author (or even a team of authors). My plan is thus to solicit (fully credited) contributions and regularly release new versions of the bibliography – with new co-authors as appropriate. (This publishing model is intended to maintain the quality and suitability for citation of the resulting document relative to the anarchy that sometimes arises in genuine communal authorship!) All of the following contributions will be gratefully accepted for the next revision (on which I am already working myself in any event)
- References to new surveys or literature reviews that categorise significant samples of ABM research by their relationship to data.
- References for proposed new entries to the bibliography in as much detail as possible.
- Proposals to delete incorrectly categorised entries. (There are a small number of cases where I have found it very difficult to establish exactly what the authors did in the name of validation, partly as a result of confusing or ambiguous terminology.)
- Proposed revisions to incorrect or “unfair” descriptions of existing entries (ideally by the authors of those pieces).
- Offers of collaboration for a proposed companion bibliography on calibration. Ultimately this will lead to a (likely very small) sample of calibrated and validated ABM (which are often surprisingly little cited given their importance to the credibility of the ABM “project” – see, for example, Chattoe-Brown (2018a, 2018b).
Acknowledgements
This article as part of “Towards Realistic Computational Models of Social Influence Dynamics” a project funded through ESRC (ES/S015159/1) by ORA Round 5.
References
Angus, Simon D. and Hassani-Mahmooei, Behrooz (2015) ‘“Anarchy” Reigns: A Quantitative Analysis of Agent-Based Modelling Publication Practices in JASSS, 2001-2012’, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 18(4), October, article 16. <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/4/16.html> doi:10.18564/jasss.2952
Chattoe-Brown, Edmund (2018a) ‘Query: What is the Earliest Example of a Social Science Simulation (that is Nonetheless Arguably an ABM) and Shows Real and Simulated Data in the Same Figure or Table?’ Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 11 June. https://rofasss.org/2018/06/11/ecb/
Chattoe-Brown, Edmund (2018b) ‘A Forgotten Contribution: Jean-Paul Grémy’s Empirically Informed Simulation of Emerging Attitude/Career Choice Congruence (1974)’, Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 1 June. https://rofasss.org/2018/06/01/ecb/
Chattoe-Brown, Edmund (2019) ‘Agent Based Models’, in Atkinson, Paul, Delamont, Sara, Cernat, Alexandru, Sakshaug, Joseph W. and Williams, Richard A. (eds.) SAGE Research Methods Foundations. doi:10.4135/9781526421036836969
Chattoe-Brown, E. (2020) A Bibliography of ABM Research Explicitly Comparing Real and Simulated Data for Validation. Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 12th June 2020. https://rofasss.org/2020/06/12/abm-validation-bib/
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Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 