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Advances in Social Simulation pp 1–12Cite as

Towards Validating Social Network Simulations

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Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 229))

Abstract

We consider the problem of finding suitable measures to validate simulated networks as outcome of (agent-based) social simulations. A number of techniques from computer science and social sciences are reviewed in this paper, which tries to compare and ‘fit’ various simulated networks to the available data by using network measures. We look at several social network analysis measures but then turn our focus to techniques that not only consider the position of the nodes but also their characteristics and their tendency to cluster with other nodes in the network – subgroup identification. We discuss how static and dynamic nature of networks may be compared. We conclude by urging a more comprehensive, transparent and rigorous approach to comparing simulation-generated networks against the available data.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Manchester

    Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas & Bruce Edmonds

  2. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Shah Jamal Alam

Authors
  1. Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas
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  2. Shah Jamal Alam
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  3. Bruce Edmonds
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Decision Analysis and Support, School of Economics Institute of Econometrics, Warsaw, Poland

    Bogumił Kamiński

  2. Division of Decision Analysis and Support, School of Economics, Institute of Econometrics, Warsaw, Poland

    Grzegorz Koloch

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Abbas, S.M.A., Alam, S.J., Edmonds, B. (2014). Towards Validating Social Network Simulations. In: Kamiński, B., Koloch, G. (eds) Advances in Social Simulation. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 229. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39829-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39829-2_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39828-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39829-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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