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Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract or conceptual models. Science offers nowadays a growing collection of methods, techniques and theory about all kinds of specialized scientific modelling. Some general theory about scientific modelling is offered by the philosophy of science, the systems theory and new fields like knowledge visualization.
The process of generating a model
Modelling refers to the process of generating a model as a conceptual representation of some phenomenon. Typically a model will refer only to some aspects of the phenomenon in question, and two models of the same phenomenon may be essentially different, that is in which the difference is more than just a simple renaming. This may be due to differing requirements of the model's end users or to conceptual or esthetic differences by the modellers and decisions made during the modelling process. Esthetic considerations that may influence the structure of a model might be the modeller's preference for a reduced ontology, preferences regarding probabilistic models vis-a-vis deterministic ones, discrete vs continuous time etc. For this reason users of a model need to understand the model's original purpose and the assumptions of its validity. Models are basically known to generate creativity from chaos.
Specialized forms of scientific modelling
- Business process modelling
- Cartography
- Climate modelling
- Data modelling
- Ecological modelling
- Economics models
- Environmental modelling
- Futures studies
- Geologic modelling
- Infographics
- Hydrography
- Hydrological modelling
- Hydrogeological modelling
- Mathematical modelling
- Medical modelling
- Modelling in Epidemiology
- Molecular modelling
- Morphological Modelling
- Ocean modelling
- Policy modelling
- Simulation
- Software modelling
- Statistical modelling
- Stochastical modelling
- System dynamics
- Thought experiment
Literature about scientific modelling
Since the 1960s there is a strong growing amount of books and magazines about scientific modelling. The is a lot of discussion about scientific modeling in the philosophy-of-science literature. For an overview, see the entry Models in Science in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Organizations for scientific modelling
Nowadays there are some 40 magazines about scientific modelling which offer all kinds of international forums.
See also
External links
"Scientific modelling"