The ODD protocol: A review and first update

By Volker Grimm, Uta Berger, D. DeAngelis, J. Gareth Polhill, J. Giske, Steven F. Railsback. Ecological Modelling, 2010

2,583 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ‘ODD’ (Overview, Design concepts, and Details) protocol was published in 2006 to standardize the published descriptions of individual-based and agent-based models (ABMs). The primary objectives of ODD are to make model descriptions more understandable and complete, thereby making ABMs less subject to criticism for being irreproducible. We have systematically evaluated existing uses of the ODD protocol and identified, as expected, parts of ODD needing improvement and clarification. Accordingly, we revise the definition of ODD to clarify aspects of the original version and thereby facilitate future standardization of ABM descriptions. We discuss frequently raised critiques in ODD but also two emerging, and unanticipated, benefits: ODD improves the rigorous formulation of models and helps make the theoretical foundations of large models more visible. Although the protocol was designed for ABMs, it can help with documenting any large, complex model, alleviating some general objections against such models.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8c8f03ac23123faf31b0f226a1a6ffb838f74940

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Citations in the corpus

NEW HORIZONS FOR MANAGING THE ENVIRONMENT: A REVIEW OF COUPLED SOCIAL‐ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS MODELING (2012, background): “There is not yet a methodically sound and convincing way of dealing with such problems (Heal [2009]).”
Everything you need to know about agent-based modelling and simulation (2016, positive): “The Overview, Design Concepts, and Details (ODD) protocol is a signi ﬁ cant step towards standardizing documentation and communications of agent-based models (Polhill et al , 2008; Grimm et al , 2010).”
Predicting monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) movement and egg-laying with a spatially-explicit agent-based model: The role of monarch perceptual range and spatial memory (2018, methodology): “We 7 describe our model for monarch butterfly movement and egg-laying in Story County, Iowa following the ODD protocol (Grimm et al., 2006, 2010).”
A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models (2020, methodology): “A standard protocol for reporting individual-based and agent-based models (IBM/ABM) was introduced more than a decade ago: the ODD protocol (Overview, Design concepts, Details; Grimm et al. 2006).”
Characterising performance of environmental models (2013, background): “, by Gupta et al. (2012). It is generally accepted that the appropriate form of a model will depend on its specific objectives (Jakeman et al.”
Towards better modelling and decision support: Documenting model development, testing, and analysis using TRACE (2014, neutral): “…individual-or agent-based models (IBMs), modellers increasingly are using a standard format, the ODD protocol (Overview, Design concepts, Details; Grimm et al., 2006, 2010), for describing the model, thereby increasingly making readers expect that IBMs are described in this format, with certain…”
A Third Wave in the Economics of Climate Change (2015, background): “Well-definedmodelling practices and approaches are still being developed, and where guidelines and standards have been proposed, they are often not widely accepted or adhered to (Grimm et al. 2006, 2010; Richiardi et al. 2006; Grimm and Railsback 2012).”
Describing human decisions in agent-based models - ODD + D, an extension of the ODD protocol (2013, methodology): “III.iii Input data III.iv Submodels We adopted the initialisation, input data and submodels elements almost as-given by Grimm et al. (2010).”
Agent-Based Modeling in Public Health: Current Applications and Future Directions (2018, neutral): “Given that the ODD protocol was developed by modelers in disciplines other than public health (primarily ecology) (46, 47), we note that the public health modeling community has much to learn about best practices in ABM methodology from other disciplines that have been involved in this work far…”
Climate change and internal migration patterns in Bangladesh: an agent-based model (2012, methodology): “Overview, design and details In order to represent the model details, we have used the Overview, Design and Details protocol (ODD) which recently has been widely used for describing ABMs (Grimm, 2006; Grimm et al., 2010).”
Facilitating Parameter Estimation and Sensitivity Analysis of Agent-Based Models: A Cookbook Using NetLogo and 'R' (2014, methodology): “The example model 1.16 The model description following the ODD protocol (Grimm et al. 2010) is adopted from Railsback & Grimm (2012).”