Agent-based computing from multi-agent systems to agent-based models: a visual survey

Agent-based computing is a diverse research domain concerned with the building of intelligent software based on the concept of “agents”. In this paper, we use Scientometric analysis to analyze all sub-domains of agent-based computing. Our data consists of 1,064 journal articles indexed in the ISI web of knowledge published during a 20 year period: 1990–2010. These were retrieved using a topic search with various keywords commonly used in sub-domains of agent-based computing. In our proposed approach, we have employed a combination of two applications for analysis, namely Network Workbench and CiteSpace—wherein Network Workbench allowed for the analysis of complex network aspects of the domain, detailed visualization-based analysis of the bibliographic data was performed using CiteSpace. Our results include the identification of the largest cluster based on keywords, the timeline of publication of index terms, the core journals and key subject categories. We also identify the core authors, top countries of origin of the manuscripts along with core research institutes. Finally, our results have interestingly revealed the strong presence of agent-based computing in a number of non-computing related scientific domains including Life Sciences, Ecological Sciences and Social Sciences.