A Declaration of Social Simulator Rights

Whilst social simulators are often very aware of their responsibilities (good documentation, verification, validation, etc.), they are perhaps less vocal in proclaiming the rights that go with these responsibilities. These rights flow from the conditions needed to do their job well, in particular to do it: honestly, transparently and reliably. Simulation modellers are often the ultimate guardians of model quality and therefore should not feel they have to accept conditions or framings that are unethical or that would result in detrimental modelling, but feel empowered to reject these. To this end I suggest six rights: feasibility, adequate communication, criterion clarity, assessment transparency, responsibility sharing, and accurate attribution. I call upon modellers to assert these rights and support their colleagues in doing so and upon those that use or collaborate with modellers to respect and uphold these rights, sharing the modelling responsibilities.