Special Issue on
"Simulation-based Design and Evaluation of
Multi-Agent Systems"

Guest Editors:
Giancarlo Fortino - University of Calabria (Italy) g.fortino@unical.it
Massimo Cossentino - ICAR/CNR (Italy)
cossentino@pa.icar.cnr.it
Juan Pavón - Universidad Complutense Madrid (Spain) jpavon@fdi.ucm.es
Marie-Pierre Gleizes - Université Paul Sabatier (France)
Marie-Pierre.Gleizes@irit.fr

Overview:
Multi-agent systems (MAS) provide powerful modeling concepts for representing real-world applications with an appropriate degree of complexity and dynamics. Several industrial experiences have already shown that the use of MAS offers advantages in many different areas such as manufacturing processes, e-Commerce, network management, etc. Since MAS in such contexts need to be tested before their deployment and execution, methodologies that support validation through simulation (e.g. discrete-event simulation, agent-based simulation, etc.) of the MAS under development are highly required. In fact, simulation of a MAS cannot only demonstrate that a MAS correctly behaves according to its specifications but can also support the analysis of emergent properties of the MAS under-test.

The aim of this special issue is to provide a comprehensive guide on new ideas and results in the integration of Simulation of Multi-Agent Systems and Agent-oriented Software Engineering domains.  It will capture the state-of-the-art in such domains in terms of techniques and methodologies for agent-based modeling and simulation, simulation-driven development processes for multi-agent systems, and simulation-oriented analysis of emergent agent behaviors in complex multi-agent systems. It will also identify potential research directions and technologies that will drive innovations within this domain. We expect the papers of the special issue to serve as a valuable reference for larger audience such as software architects, practitioners, developers, researchers, and students.

The special issue is partly associated to the Workshop MAS&S’09 (http://lisdip.deis.unical.it/workshops/mass09/): best papers presented at the workshop will also be selected and invited.

Topics of interest:

Topics for potential papers for the special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Agent-based simulation techniques and methodologies
• Discrete-event simulation of Multi-Agent Systems
• Simulation as validation tool for the development process of MAS
• Agent-oriented methodologies incorporating simulation tools
• MAS simulation driven by formal models
• MAS simulation toolkits and frameworks
• Testing vs. simulation of MAS
• Agents as modeling concept enabling communication between domain experts and simulation experts
• Industrial case studies based on MAS and simulation/testing
• Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS)
• Agent Computational Economics (ACE)
• Agent Computational Finance (ACF)
• Agent-based simulation of networked systems
• Scalability in agent-based simulation

Submission Guidelines
The special issue will only accept papers by electronic submission through the Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory Elsevier Editorial System (EES). The prospective authors are requested to follow the guidelines that refer to the preparation of the manuscript, and limit their paper to 20 pages (papers exceeding this limit could be rejected without being reviewed). For a full and complete Guide for Authors, please refer to: http://ees.elsevier.com/simpat/. Each paper will be peer-reviewed by at least 2 independent experts.

Important Dates
October 30, 2009: Submission of Papers
December 15, 2009: Notification of Acceptance/ Rejection
January 15, 2010: Submission of Revised Papers
within 2010: Journal Special Issue published