SCAMP (Social Causality using Agents with Multiple Perspectives) is one of four social simulators that generated socially realistic data for the Ground Truth program. Unlike the other three simulators, it is based on a computational principle, stigmergy, inspired by social insects. Using this approach, we modeled conflict in a nation-state inspired by the ongoing scenario in Syria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article argues that evaluators could better deal with unintended consequences if they improved their methods of systematically and methodically combining empirical data collection and model building over the life cycle of an evaluation. This process would be helpful because it can increase the timespan from when the need for a change in methodology is first suspected to the time when the new element of the methodology is operational. The article begins with an explanation of why logic models are so important in evaluation, and why the utility of models is limited if they are not continually revised based on empirical evaluation data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEval Program Plann
October 2016
This paper examines the intellectual structure of evaluation by means of citation analysis. By using various article attributes and citation counts in Google Scholar and (Social) Science Citation Index Web of Science, we analyze all articles published in Evaluation and Program Planning from 2000 until 2012. We identify and discuss the characteristics and development of the field as reflected in the history of those citations.
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