Trends in sensitivity analysis practice in the last decade
Ferretti, Federico (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Itàlia))
Saltelli, Andrea (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Tarantola, Stefano (European Commission. Joint Research Centre. Institute for Energy and Transport (Italy))

Date:	2016
Abstract:	The majority of published sensitivity analyses (SAs) are either local or one factor-at-a-time (OAT) analyses, relying on unjustified assumptions of model linearity and additivity. Global approaches to sensitivity analyses (GSA)which would obviate these shortcomings, are applied by a minority of researchers. By reviewing the academic literature on SA, we here present a bibliometric analysis of the trends of different SA practices in last decade. The review has been conducted both on some top ranking journals (Nature and Science)and through an extended analysis in the Elsevier's Scopus database of scientific publications. After correcting for the global growth in publications, the amount of papers performing a generic SA has notably increased over the last decade. Even if OAT is still the most largely used technique in SA, there is a clear increase in the use of GSA with preference respectively for regression and variance-based techniques. Even after adjusting for the growth of publications in the sole modelling field, to which SA and GSA normally apply, the trend is confirmed. Data about regions of origin and discipline are also briefly discussed. The results above are confirmed when zooming on the sole articles published in chemical modelling, a field historically proficient in the use of SA methods.
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Sensitivity analysis ; Global sensitivity analysis ; Bibliometric analysis ; Chemical modelling
Published in:	Science of the total environment, Vol. 568 (Oct. 2016) , p. 666-670, ISSN 1879-1026

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.133

5 p, 716.7 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles