Evaluation of free Java-libraries for social-scientific agent based simulation

Robert Tobias () and Carole Hofmann
Additional contact information
Robert Tobias: http://www.eawag.ch/about/personen/homepages/tobiasro/index_EN

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2004, vol. 7, issue 1, 6

Abstract: This paper compares four freely available programming libraries for support of social scientific agent based computer simulation: RePast, Swarm, Quicksilver, and VSEit. Our aim is evaluation to determine the simulation framework that is the best suited for theory and data based modeling of social interventions, such as information campaigns. Our first step consisted in an Internet search for programming libraries and the selection of suitable candidates for detailed evaluation on the basis of 'knock out' criteria. Next, we developed a rating system and assessed the selected simulation environments on the basis of the rating criteria. The evaluation was based on official program documentation, statements by developers and users, and the experiences and impressions of the evaluators. The evaluation results showed the RePast environment to be the clear winner. In a further step, the evaluation results were weighted according to effort/time/energy saved by social scientists by using the particular ready-made programming library as compared to doing their own programming. Once again, the weighted results show RePast to win out over the other Java based programming libraries examined.

Keywords: Evaluation; Simulation Framework; Agent Based Modeling; Java; Theory Based Modeling; Data Based Modeling; Social Intervention Planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-01-31
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/7/1/6.html (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2003-45-2

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation from Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Francesco Renzini ().