Best practices in Analytic Network Process studies. (30th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mu, Enrique; Cooper, Orrin; Peasley, Michael
• Is Part Of: Expert systems with applications. Volume 159(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11-30
• Subjects: ANP best practices -- ANP reporting -- ANP model specification -- AHP best practices -- AHP reporting; Expert systems (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Systèmes experts (Informatique) -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 006.33
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2020.113536
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-4174

Abstract

Highlights: For the first time, best practices for the reporting of ANP studies are proposed. A minimum set of practices are needed to ensure the validity of ANP studies. Best practices are presented as a convenient checklist for authors and reviewers. A simple approach to check if the ANP supermatrix convergence assumptions are met. Suggestions, examples and suitable references are provided for the adoption of best practices. Abstract: It has been more than 20 years since the appearance of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) in the scientific literature. Since that time, this method has been used to address complex decision-making situations and capture the dependency and feedback among the different elements in the decision model. Yet, a review of ANP studies published in 2015 shows that the reports of these studies are either deficient or incomplete in the analysis or reporting to the point that it casts a shadow on the validity of their conclusions. We propose, to our knowledge for the first time, a set of best practices to conduct, analyze and report ANP studies.