SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.

Improving interpretability and reusability has become paramount for modeling and simulation studies. Provenance, which encompasses information about the entities, activities, and agents involved in producing a model, experiment, or data, is pivotal in achieving this goal. However, capturing provenan...

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Main Authors: Andreas Ruscheinski, Anja Wolpers, Philipp Henning, Pia Wilsdorf, Adelinde M Uhrmacher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327607
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author Andreas Ruscheinski
Anja Wolpers
Philipp Henning
Pia Wilsdorf
Adelinde M Uhrmacher
author_facet Andreas Ruscheinski
Anja Wolpers
Philipp Henning
Pia Wilsdorf
Adelinde M Uhrmacher
author_sort Andreas Ruscheinski
collection DOAJ
description Improving interpretability and reusability has become paramount for modeling and simulation studies. Provenance, which encompasses information about the entities, activities, and agents involved in producing a model, experiment, or data, is pivotal in achieving this goal. However, capturing provenance in simulation studies presents a tremendous challenge due to the diverse software systems employed by modelers and the various entities and activities to be considered. Existing methods only automatically capture partial provenance from individual software systems, leaving gaps in the overall story of a simulation study. To address this limitation, we introduce a lightweight method that can record the provenance of complete simulation studies by monitoring the modeler in their familiar yet heterogeneous work environment, posing as few restrictions as possible. The approach emphasizes a clear separation of concerns between provenance capturers, which collect data from the diverse software systems used, and a provenance builder, which assembles this information into a coherent provenance graph. Furthermore, we provide a web interface that enables modelers to enhance and explore their provenance graphs. We showcase the practicality of SIMPROV through two cell biological case studies.
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spelling doaj-art-4c52477d402a4befa9988d6cc26825492025-08-20T03:16:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01207e032760710.1371/journal.pone.0327607SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.Andreas RuscheinskiAnja WolpersPhilipp HenningPia WilsdorfAdelinde M UhrmacherImproving interpretability and reusability has become paramount for modeling and simulation studies. Provenance, which encompasses information about the entities, activities, and agents involved in producing a model, experiment, or data, is pivotal in achieving this goal. However, capturing provenance in simulation studies presents a tremendous challenge due to the diverse software systems employed by modelers and the various entities and activities to be considered. Existing methods only automatically capture partial provenance from individual software systems, leaving gaps in the overall story of a simulation study. To address this limitation, we introduce a lightweight method that can record the provenance of complete simulation studies by monitoring the modeler in their familiar yet heterogeneous work environment, posing as few restrictions as possible. The approach emphasizes a clear separation of concerns between provenance capturers, which collect data from the diverse software systems used, and a provenance builder, which assembles this information into a coherent provenance graph. Furthermore, we provide a web interface that enables modelers to enhance and explore their provenance graphs. We showcase the practicality of SIMPROV through two cell biological case studies.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327607
spellingShingle Andreas Ruscheinski
Anja Wolpers
Philipp Henning
Pia Wilsdorf
Adelinde M Uhrmacher
SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
PLoS ONE
title SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
title_full SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
title_fullStr SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
title_full_unstemmed SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
title_short SIMPROV: Provenance capturing for simulation studies.
title_sort simprov provenance capturing for simulation studies
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327607
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