Response to Invited Commentary Marshall and Galea Respond to “Data Theory in Epidemiology”

Over the past decade, the use of agent-based models (ABMs) and the development of causal inference methods have proceeded rather independently in epidemiology. In our article (1), we aimed to provide an initial foundation to bridge the two. We argued for a more rigorous causal inference framework in epidemiologic applications of ABMs and sought to generate discussion about how best to accomplish this. We therefore wish to thank Diez Roux (2) and Hernán (3) for ex-tending this discussion and note here broad points of unanim-ity and motivating next steps. Centrally, we support Hernán’s call for research and con-sensus on acceptable methodological standards for agent-based modeling in epidemiology. Our paper was a first shot across the conceptual bow. However, there is much work that remains to be done in identifying specific agent-based mod