The PAVE pathway: how to talk about models with people who built them, and people who didn’t

Do you want your model findings to be used and have a place in academic or policy discourse? Then PAVE that place. For modelers, PAVE (Purpose, Assumptions, Validity, and Exploration) is a semi-structured method to communicate the suitability of models to inform a particular purpose. For users of model results, PAVE is a method for identifying the strength with which model findings inform a question of interest. For all audiences, PAVE distills more comprehensive model documentation protocols into a simple set of concepts for modelers and users alike to discuss. In doing so, PAVE solves a dilemma: there is an audience for whom formal protocols for documenting model development, testing, and analysis are everything. And there is an audience for whom such technical tools are a terrifying abyss, neither to be approached nor looked upon. PAVE is meant to help these audiences talk to each other about model findings.