I am conducting a systematic literature review for modeling methods used in a specific realm of wildlife biology. I am having trouble defining which methods can actually be considered mathematical models. As this is part of my exclusion criteria (only studies that use mathematical models) for the review, its definition is important.
For example, many of the methods for the papers I am looking at use analysis of variance (ANOVA) for their approach. This seems more like a statistical test to me when compared to a dynamical model that's run with simulations. However, I have seen some resources that classify it as a type of mathematical model.
Does anyone have suggestion for defining what constitutes a mathematical model or has anyone come across a resource that addresses this?