Model aesthetics

摘要

We thank the readers that commented on our editorial on model quality in issue 2004-3, and we strongly encourage readers to send comments to us on the editorials and the papers published in SoSyM (our email addresses are included at the end of this editorial). Some comments pointed out that the study of model quality addresses a wide-ranging set of questions and concerns. Model quality is not only concerned with how faithfully a model describes desired properties of the real world or system; it should also be concerned with innate attributes that affect qualities such as analyzability, understandability, and evolvability: Is the model readable? Is the model ambiguous? Is the model concise and complete? Is the model unnecessarily redundant? It may be possible to identify "model smells" (similar to "code smells") that provide indicators of a model's quality. We encourage researchers in this area to submit high quality papers on this topic to SoSyM. Papers that describe the results of empirical studies on model quality and aesthetics are especially encouraged.