NBSIMGEN: Jupyter Notebook Extension for Generating Simulation Experiments

Simulation experiments are crucial in conducting simulation studies. With simulation studies growing increasingly complex, simulation experiments are intertwined with steps of conceptual modeling, model building, analyzing data, and visualizing and interpreting results. Making the products of these various steps (assumptions, requirements, data, model components, and experiments) explicit has been shown to increase the reproducibility of simulation studies. Moreover, using an integrated environment that allows developing, organizing and documenting those products can facilitate their automatic reuse and exploitation. We explore Jupyter Notebook as an all-in-one solution for conducting and documenting a simulation study, and we present nbSimGen. This Jupyter Notebook extension lends support to modelers by automatically specifying and running suitable simulation experiments. It is based on an annotation vocabulary that, during the development of the conceptual model and the simulation model, allows users to mark portions of their notebook deemed relevant to the various simulation experiments to come.