The INFO Tab

Required sections

Be sure that each of the following sections are found in the INFO tab with the following formatting. There should be no section headers other than these, except in unusual cases.

It is never acceptable to omit a section.

In the past it has sometimes been the practice to have subheadings (within a section) in all capital letters, however, these should be changed to have lowercase letters, otherwise when converted to HTML the extra headers will look funny because they'll look like major headings instead of subheadings.

## WHAT IS IT?

(a general understanding of what the model is trying to show or explain)

## HOW IT WORKS

(what rules the agents use to create the overall behavior of the model)

## HOW TO USE IT

(how to use the model, including a description of each of the items in the Interface tab)

## THINGS TO NOTICE

(suggested things for the user to notice while running the model)

## THINGS TO TRY

(suggested things for the user to try to do (move sliders, switches, etc.) with the model)

## EXTENDING THE MODEL

(suggested things to add or change in the Code tab to make the model more complicated, detailed, accurate, etc.)

## NETLOGO FEATURES

(interesting or unusual features of NetLogo that the model uses, particularly in the Code tab; or where workarounds were needed for missing features)

## RELATED MODELS

(models in the NetLogo Models Library and elsewhere which are of related interest)

## CREDITS AND REFERENCES

(a reference to the model's URL on the web if it has one, as well as any other necessary credits, citations, and links)

Content of sections

HOW IT WORKS is about how the model works abstractly, not about how the actual concrete code works. It should explain the rules of the model without referring to programming concepts or the contents of the procedures tab.

If the Interface tab is especially complicated, the HOW TO USE IT section could get quite long. If a lot of the stuff in the Interface tab is optional or obscure, you might want to postpone describing that stuff until THINGS TO TRY, in order not to break the overall readability and flow of the info tab. (If you do this, do put a sentence in HOW TO USE IT saying "Some additional options are described below under THINGS TO TRY.")

The distinction between THINGS TO NOTICE and THINGS TO TRY isn't always obvious. Usually THINGS TO NOTICE are things you can easily notice on the default settings (or with only easy, minor settings changes). THINGS TO NOTICE gets you hooked, THINGS TO TRY involves digging deeper. Nothing in THINGS TO NOTICE or THINGS TO TRY should require any programming. Those kinds of suggestions go in EXTENDING THE MODEL.

First paragraph

The first paragraph of the WHAT IS IT? section should be able to stand on its own as a brief and self-contained description of the model. "Brief" means 500 characters or less. This is because if your model was put in the Models Library, the first paragraph of WHAT IS IT? is what will show up in the Models Library dialog when the model is selected.

The more detailed explanation of what the model is about can go in subsequent paragraphs of WHAT IS IT?. Explanation of the rules behind the model should go in HOW IT WORKS, not WHAT IS IT?.

Don't say "graphics window"

It isn't called that, it's called the view. Usually it's not necessary to specify 2D view or 3D view, but in some contexts specifying may be appropriate. Also don't say "screen", again, view is more appropriate.

Avoid NetLogo jargon

Make sure the text, including HOW IT WORKS (and excepting the "NETLOGO FEATURES" section) does not assume familiarity with NetLogo programming. For example, it shouldn't refer to "turtles" when it could just say rabbits or molecules or people or what have you. Similarly for "patches", "observer", and other NetLogo jargon.

Line breaks

Remove manual line breaks from info tabs. NetLogo will do its own line-wrapping based on the width of the window.

Fixed width font

If there are any parts of the info tab that must be in a fixed width font to line up correctly, this is most easily achievable by indenting each line by four spaces. Example:

                    1%         +    -
    H-A  + H O  <========>  H O  + A
            2                3

Be careful — it's easy to accidentally change slider settings when you are fooling with the model.

Don't inadvertently save changes you didn't want saved.

Trailing blank lines

Remove any extra blank lines from the end.

Spacing & formatting

Put two blank lines between sections. There should never be two consecutive blank lines within a section.

Put one blank line between paragraphs within a section.

In THINGS TO NOTICE, THINGS TO TRY, and EXTENDING THE MODEL, each suggestion should be its own paragraph. There's no need to put numbers or bullets in front of each suggestion.

Credits and references

If the model is based on published sources (or web sites), it's good to include reference (or URL) information here. We have not enforced a specific reference style so far, but most models use something close to the APA style.

Even if you haven't used outside sources, we ask that you please add the following citation for the NetLogo software itself

Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

NetLogo is an academic academic project and as such, citations of the software itself are a main way of how its impact is measured.

Other things to keep in mind

Avoid using temporal markers that get outdated: "a recent Atlantic article" Don't underestimate the potential longevity of your model!