Nigel Gilbert (1998) 'Editorial'
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation vol. 1, no. 1, <https://www.jasss.org/1/1/editorial.html>
To cite articles published in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, please reference the above information and include paragraph numbers if necessary
World-wide interest in the potential of computer simulation for addressing issues in the social sciences has been growing since at least the beginning of the 1990s. The founding of this journal is just the latest step in a sequence which seems to be following the sociologists' of science template for the growth of new scientific specialities in the finest detail (see, for example, Lemaine et al, 1976).
Here is a personal view of a few of the milestones which have already been passed:
Until now, most of the research work in the field has been published in edited collections (for example, those cited above). However, such collections typically take a long time between submission of the manuscript and eventual publication, and the books are expensive and sometimes difficult to get hold of. The benefits of an electronic journal are that material can be published quickly (always within three months); it is cheap to produce, because there are no media or distribution costs; and formats such as colour illustrations and animations are easy to include.
This first issue contains three papers, fully refereed as one would expect of a scholarly journal, which are representative of current work. Although one article comes from a department of anthropology, one from economics and one from computer science, all three speak to general issues in the social sciences: the role of culture, modelling institutions, and ideology.
The issue also features the first Forum debate. The Forum is a place for programmatics, controversy, working papers and debate. Items here are not refereed before publication, but we will expect responses and counter-responses to the material in the Forum.
The journal will also publish reviews of books likely to be of interest to our readers. If you know of a recent book which you would like reviewed, or if you would like to review a book yourself, please let us know.
A note about the technicalities of using an electronic journal:
JASSS has borrowed heavily from a prior and very successful electronic journal, Sociological Research Online. We thank those who have designed, developed, edited and funded Sociological Research Online for their inspiration and practical assistance.
Finally, we look forward to your comments and suggestions.
Nigel Gilbert
Editor, JASSS
GILBERT, N. and R. Conte, Eds. (1995) Artificial Societies: the computer simulation of social life London: UCL Press.
GILBERT, N. and J. Doran, Eds. (1994) Simulating Societies: the computer simulation of social phenomena London: UCL Press.
HEGSELMANN, R., U. Mueller and K. G. Troitzsch, Eds. (1996) Modelling and simulation in the social sciences from the philosophy of science point of view Dordrecht: Kluwer.
LEMAINE, G., Macleod, R., Mulkay, M., and Weingart, P. Eds. (1976) Perspectives on the emergence of scientific disciplines. Den Haag: Mouton and Co.
TROITZSCH, K. G., U. Mueller, N. Gilbert and J. E. Doran, Eds. (1996) Social science microsimulation Berlin: Springer.
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