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Lafuerza, Luis F., Dyson, Louise, Edmonds, Bruce and McKane, Alan J. (2016) Staged models for interdisciplinary research. PLoS One, 11 (6). e0157261. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157261
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157261
Abstract
Modellers of complex biological or social systems are often faced with an invidious choice: to use simple models with few mechanisms that can be fully analysed, or to construct complicated models that include all the features which are thought relevant. The former ensures rigour, the latter relevance. We discuss a method that combines these two approaches, beginning with a complex model and then modelling the complicated model with simpler models. The resulting “chain” of models ensures some rigour and relevance. We illustrate this process on a complex model of voting intentions, constructing a reduced model which agrees well with the predictions of the full model. Experiments with variations of the simpler model yield additional insights which are hidden by the complexity of the full model. This approach facilitated collaboration between social scientists and physicists—the complex model was specified based on the social science literature, and the simpler model constrained to agree (in core aspects) with the complicated model.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QA Mathematics |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Interdisciplinary research, Interdisciplinary research--Mathematical models, Stochastic models | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | PLoS One | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Public Library of Science | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 30 June 2016 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 11 | ||||||||
| Number: | 6 | ||||||||
| Article Number: | e0157261 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0157261 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||||
| Funder: | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) | ||||||||
| Grant number: | 392 EP/H02171X | ||||||||
| Adapted As: |
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