Replication is essential to the credibility of social simulation but has
traditionally been far more advocated than practiced. Recognising that some
of the reasons for this are institutional, the European Social Simulation
Association (ESSA) and Volterra Consulting have created the annual ³Volterra
Consulting Replication Prize² intending both to increase the prevalence of
replication in social simulation and the quality of its execution.
In order to be eligible for the prize, worth 500 euros, applicants must
attempt to replicate a published social simulation (that is, reproduce the
published model using a different technology, for instance a different
programming language) and write up the results in a form suitable for
journal publication. The prize is primarily intended for applicants who have
not yet been awarded a PhD.
In addition to the prize (which will be announced at the ESSA annual
conference (in 2009: September 14-18
http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/essa2009/), the best submission will be
considered for publication in the JASSS Forum section
http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html.
The judges (drawn from ESSA and Volterra Consulting) will consider the
following factors in assessing applications:
-
Clarity and completeness of exposition. This will include provision of
the replication code and willingness to make it publicly available. -
Choice of a relevant and socially significant simulation to replicate.
-
Ability to reproduce (or explain inability to reproduce) the key findings
of the simulation replicated. -
The degree of technical difficulty involved in the replication.
The prize will be awarded annually, provided that there are entries of a
sufficient standard.
Submissions should be sent to [email protected] in the form of
a zipped archive attachment, including a description of the replication as a
PDF and any relevant code, with instructions on how to run it. They must
arrive by midnight GMT on June 14 2009. All submissions will be
acknowledged.