A general model for trust and reputation systems

Trust and reputation systems are widely used in electronic commerce, social network, search engine, and so on. They have become a very important element in cyberspace. However the theoretical research actualities of this field are lagging behind applications. Various existing works are rarely relevant and without consensus. Aiming at the above problems, this paper proposes a general model for trust and reputation systems. The model mainly solves the following basic problems in this field: i) redefine the concepts of trust and reputation and discuss the relationship between them; ii) design and construction of the general model, especially the basic element of trust and reputation systems, and iii) the applications of the general model for trust and reputation systems. According to this work, this paper gets some key results of this field. These results will provide research foundations and framework for the future work.