Communicating Agent-Based Models to Stakeholders: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Agent-based models (ABMs) are widely used in fields such as ecology, natural resource management, and policy planning to simulate complex systems. However, their adoption by stakeholders remains limited, primarily due to challenges in effectively communicating these models. Communicating ABMs to stakeholders involves the methods and tools used to convey a model’s structure, function, and results to facilitate understanding, trust, and application. This scoping review examines 65 articles from major databases, identifying key barriers and gaps in ABM communication. Three major issues emerge: (1) limited efforts to support the use of existing ABMs; (2) insufficient emphasis on explaining the emergence in ABMs; and (3) the absence of standardized methods to evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies. By mapping current communication strategies and categorizing them based on levels of stakeholder participation—ranging from nominal to transformative—this review highlights the need for clearer, more transparent methods of conveying ABM complexity and emergent properties. It also emphasizes the importance of systematic evaluations of communication approaches to ensure that stakeholders fully understand and can apply these models. This paper contributes to the field by offering actionable recommendations to improve transparency, stakeholder engagement, and the reuse of ABMs, with the aim of fostering broader adoption and more effective application of these models across various domains.