Simulation modeling is one of the four cornerstone areas of interest to the IAJ.  It's a relatively new, and largely unknown, field that can be of great advantage to journalists if we can take the time to learn how it works and then how we can apply it to our field.  The best resource to date for journalists is the J-Lab, (http://www.j-lab.org/) at the University of Maryland.

But today along comes this announcement of a rich issue of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.  It's filled with deep thinking and application.

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The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk) published issue 4 of Volume 8 on 31 October 2005.

JASSS is an electronic, refereed journal devoted to the exploration and understanding of social processes by means of computer simulation.   It is freely available, with no subscription.
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This issue is our largest ever, with 12 peer-reviewed articles, eight of them forming a special section on Epistemological Perspectives, edited by Ulrich Frank and Klaus Troitzsch.

If you would like to volunteer as a referee and have published at least one refereed article in the academic literature, you may do so by completing the form at http://www.epress.ac.uk/JASSS/webforms/new_referee.php

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Peer-reviewed Articles
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How Can Social Networks Ever Become Complex? Modelling the Emergence of Complex Networks from Local Social Exchanges
   by  Josep M. Pujol, Andreas Flache, Jordi Delgado and Ramon Sanguesa
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/12.html>

Violence and Revenge in Egalitarian Societies
   by  Stephen Younger
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/11.html>

Influence of Local Information on Social Simulations in Small-World Network Models
   by  Chung-Yuan Huang, Chuen-Tsai Sun and Hsun-Cheng Lin
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/8.html>

It Pays to Be Popular: a Study of Civilian Assistance and Guerrilla Warfare
   by  Scott Wheeler
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/9.html>

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Special Section on Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation
   by  Ulrich Frank and Klaus G. Troitzsch
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/7.html>

Towards Good Social Science
   by  Scott Moss and Bruce Edmonds
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/13.html>

A Framework for Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation
   by  Joerg Becker, Bjoern Niehaves and Karsten Klose
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/1.html>

What is the Truth of Simulation?
   by  Alex Schmid
       < http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/5.html>

The Logic of the Method of Agent-Based Simulation in the Social Sciences:  Empirical and Intentional Adequacy of Computer Programs
   by  Nuno David, Jaime Simao Sichman and Helder Coelho
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/2.html>

Validation of Simulation: Patterns in the Social and Natural Sciences
   by  Guenter Kueppers and Johannes Lenhard
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/3.html>

Stylised Facts and the Contribution of Simulation  to the Economic Analysis of Budgeting
   by  Bernd-O. Heine, Matthias Meyer and Oliver Strangfeld
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/4.html>

Does Empirical Embeddedness Matter? Methodological Issues on Agent-Based Models for Analytical Social Science
   by  Riccardo Boero and Flaminio Squazzoni
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/6.html>

Caffe Nero: the Evaluation of Social Simulation
   by  Petra Ahrweiler and Nigel Gilbert
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/14.html>


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Book Reviews    (Review editor: Edmund Chattoe)
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Edmund Chattoe reviews:
       Routines of Decision Making by Betsch, Tilmann and Haberstroh, Susanne (eds.)
       <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/8/4/reviews/chattoe.html>

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The new issue can be accessed through the JASSS home page: <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk>.

The next issue will be published at the end of January 2006.

Submissions are welcome: see http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/admin/submit.html

____________________________________________________________________________
JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL SIMULATION
<http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/>
Editor: Nigel Gilbert, University of Surrey, UK
Forum Editor: Klaus G. Troitzsch, Koblenz-Landau University, Germany
Review Editor: Edmund Chattoe, University of Oxford, UK
________________________________________________________________________

Sent from the EPRESS journal management system, http://www.epress.ac.uk