{ "model": { "rank": 15463, "code": "thing-q1116876", "model_id": "vr.tr.scientific-modeling", "name": "scientific modeling", "purpose": "Let an agent explain scientific and technical modelling and its kinds, describe how models are built, validated and used, support choosing modelling approaches, and discuss limits and misuse of models.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1116876/", "tier": 2, "score": 34, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "data modeling", "UML modeling", "dimensional modeling", "GNU Ferret", "data hierarchy", "model-making", "disease modeling", "geometric modeling", "mathematical modelling", "biological network modeling", "atmospheric dispersion modelling", "invasion modelling", "climate modeling", "computer modeling", "glacier modeling", "multi-scale modelling", "cancer modeling", "inverse modeling", "integrated assessment modelling", "molecular modelling", "analogue modelling", "process modeling", "solid modeling", "land change modeling", "environmental modelling", "connectome-based predictive modeling", "Basin modeling", "Geochemical modeling", "sustainability model", "predictive modelling", "stand level modelling", "atmospheric dispersion modeling", "water quality modelling", "wind wave modeling", "data-driven modeling", "mass-balance modelling", "equation-free modeling", "metabolic network modelling", "stochastic modelling", "homology-based molecular modelling" ], "aliasCount": 49, "merged": 49, "knownIn": 34, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1116876", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1116876", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T03:00:55Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1116876", "registryId": "vr.tr.scientific-modeling", "name": "scientific modeling", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1116876/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.scientific-modeling", "name": "scientific modeling", "purpose": "Let an agent explain scientific and technical modelling and its kinds, describe how models are built, validated and used, support choosing modelling approaches, and discuss limits and misuse of models.", "definition": "The activity of constructing abstract, conceptual, mathematical, computational or physical representations of systems or phenomena to understand, explain, predict or design them, including scientific models in physics, biology and climate science, data and dimensional modelling in information systems, software modelling with notations such as UML, and physical model-making; models simplify reality according to purpose, are validated against observations, and are central to modern science and engineering.", "what_it_is_for": "Constructing representations of systems.", "affordances": [ "explain kinds of modelling", "describe building and validation", "support choosing approaches", "discuss limits" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Purpose-driven simplification", "Validation", "Multiple kinds", "Predictive use" ], "appearance": "Not physical as an activity; models range from equations to diagrams and scale models.", "visual_identification": [ "Representation of a system for understanding or prediction", "Conceptual, mathematical, computational or physical", "Simulation runs a model; a theory is a broader explanatory framework" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "conceptual and mathematical models", "computational and simulation models", "data and dimensional models", "software and system models such as UML", "physical and scale models" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "modeling and simulation", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "representation", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "calibration", "why": "model calibration" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "global warming", "why": "climate models" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Modelling notations and standards such as UML", "Verification and validation guidelines", "Reporting standards for model-based research" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Overtrusting models beyond validation", "Confusing model with reality", "Poor documentation of assumptions" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What modelling is.", "rationale": "Methodology.", "layers": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept and kinds.", "findings": [ { "id": "concept-finding", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a model, what kinds of models exist, and how does purpose shape simplification?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which kind of modelling is meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "philosophy", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Models and theories.", "findings": [ { "id": "philosophy-finding", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophy.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do philosophers of science describe the relation between models, theories and reality?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits philosophy of science?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "build", "name": "Build", "description": "Building and validating.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "build", "name": "Build", "description": "Building a model.", "findings": [ { "id": "build-finding", "name": "Build", "description": "Building.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a model of this system be built, from conceptual framing to formalisation?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific modelling method?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "validate", "name": "Validate", "description": "Validation and calibration.", "findings": [ { "id": "validate-finding", "name": "Validate", "description": "Validation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are models verified, validated, calibrated and their uncertainty assessed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits calibration?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applications and limits.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "fields", "name": "Fields", "description": "Modelling by field.", "findings": [ { "id": "fields-finding", "name": "Fields", "description": "Fields.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is modelling used in physics, biology, climate science, engineering and information systems?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific field?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits and misuse.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-finding", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the limits of models, and how have models been misused in policy or engineering, with cases attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the model being used beyond its validated scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did modelling develop from early physical models to computational science?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can modelling be taught across disciplines?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should data modelling be a separate entry?", "How should validation guidelines be linked?", "How should modelling tools be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a scientific modeling, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain scientific and technical modelling and its kinds, describe how models are built, validated and used, support choosing modelling approaches, and discuss limits and misuse of models.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: data modeling, UML modeling, dimensional modeling, GNU Ferret, data hierarchy, model-making, disease modeling, geometric modeling, mathematical modelling, biological network modeling, atmospheric dispersion modelling, invasion modelling.", "49 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 34 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a scientific modeling, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "data modeling", "UML modeling", "dimensional modeling", "GNU Ferret", "data hierarchy", "model-making", "disease modeling", "geometric modeling", "mathematical modelling", "biological network modeling", "atmospheric dispersion modelling", "invasion modelling" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 34 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 49 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one scientific modeling from another, and a scientific modeling from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a scientific modeling sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a scientific modeling from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a scientific modeling passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a scientific modeling between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a scientific modeling, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a scientific modeling is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What scientific modeling is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of scientific modeling are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is scientific modeling operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of scientific modeling and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of scientific modeling?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as scientific modeling?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a scientific modeling came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a scientific modeling and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a scientific modeling is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a scientific modeling, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a scientific modeling, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a scientific modeling is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }