Ten simple rules for tackling your first mathematical models: A guide for graduate students by graduate students

• Published in: PLoS computational biology 2021-01, Vol.17 (1), p.e1008539-e1008539
• Main Authors: Bodner, Korryn, Brimacombe, Chris, Chenery, Emily S, Greiner, Ariel, McLeod, Anne M, Penk, Stephanie R, Vargas Soto, Juan S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Compartments; Computer and Information Sciences; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Engineering and Technology; Graduate students; Hypotheses; Infections; Mathematical models; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Ordinary differential equations; People and Places; Population number; Problem solving; Research and Analysis Methods; Research design; Science Policy; Scientific papers; Social Sciences; Statistical analysis; Students; Study and teaching; Vocational guidance
• ISSN: 1553-7358; 1553-734X; 1553-7358
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008539

Boxes represent susceptible, infected, and recovered compartments, and directed arrows represent the flow of individuals between these compartments with the rate of flow being controlled by the contact rate, c, the probability of infection, γ, and the recovery rate, θ. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008539.g001 (1)(2)(3)where S is the number of susceptible individuals, I is the number of infected individuals, R is the number of recovered individuals, and N = S+I+R is the total population size. The practice of clearly defining a research question is often drilled into aspiring researchers in the context of selecting an appropriate research design, interpreting statistical results, or when outlining a research paper. In our example, if the objective is to determine whether reinfection plays an important role in explaining the patterns of a disease, we can test our SIR candidate models using incidence data to determine which model receives the most empirical support. The text below each conceptual model are the hypotheses (H1 and H2) that represent the differences between these 2 SIR models. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008539.g002 Finally, we recognize that time and resource constraints may limit the ability to build multiple models simultaneously; however, even writing down alternative models on paper can be helpful as you can always revisit them if your primary model does not perform as expected.