Dear all,
I think many of us agree that having a journal that is devoted to both ABM and general system theory referring to “Agent-based Complex Systems” would be very useful. It would foster exchange of expertise, ideas, concepts, and theories among different disciplines, for example social sciences (economics, political sciences, sociology), archeaology, ecology, physics, etc. It would contribute to make ABM a more unified and unifying tool, and it would contribute to the emergence of a new general science of Agent-based Complex Systems.
On the other hand we are all aware of the problem that concepts, terminologies (=jargon), attitudes towards modelling and theory, and many other things usually are so different among disciplines that communication can be hard or even impossible.
And, since we all depend on getting our papers published as visible (and, which sometimes, but not always, is the same: as prestiguous) as possible, we might rather prefer to submit our stuff to disciplinary journals.
So, the two questions regarding a general ABM/ACS journal are:
- who would read (and cite) it?
- who would contribute, and why?
My colleague Hans Thulke (UFZ Leipzig) and me are seriously considering the idea of running - together with an interdisciplinary and dedicated team - a new journal that is both interdisciplinary and devoted to ABMs and Agent-based Complex Systems. The idea is to run an online journal, for example via BMC (BioMed Central; http://www.biomedcentral.com/browse/journals/); some of their journals are quite successful; or, if possible, via PLoS (http://www.plos.org/journals/index.html).
Our first step is to collect as much feedback to this idea as possible. We would also be grateful for suggestions of similar forums where we could post our idea and questions.
Volker
Volker Grimm & Hans Thulke, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, [email protected]; [email protected]