Agent Based Models and Simulation in Social Sciences: A bibliometric review

Abstract

Since the first agent-based models (ABM), the scientific community has been interested in making not only the results of computational models understandable but also the modeling description, to facilitate their replication. The form that has been adopted to a greater extent has been the ODD (Overview, Design concepts, and Details) protocol, which provides a generic structure for its documentation. This protocol provides a way to clearly explain the procedures and interactions of the complex systems to be analyzed, with applications that have spread across different disciplines. This work will show a bibliometric review of the articles that emerged from the first publication of this protocol in 2006, analyzing the development that ABMs have had in the social sciences. A description will be made of the lines of research with the greatest activity and the links between them will be analyzed; while summarizing the countries, universities, and journals with the highest contributions.