  The large number of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) simulators available
nowadays, differ in their design, goals, and characteristics. Users who have to
decide which simulator is the most appropriate for their particular
requirements, are today lost, faced with a panoply of disparate and diverse
simulators. Hence, it is obvious the need for establishing guidelines that
support users in the tasks of selecting a simulator to suit their preferences
and needs. In previous works, we proposed a generic and novel approach to
evaluate networks simulators, considering a methodological process and a set of
qualitative and quantitative criteria. In particularly, for WSN simulators, the
criteria include relevant aspects for this kind of networks, such as energy
consumption modelling and scalability capacity. The aims of this work are: (i)
describe deeply the criteria related to WSN aspects; (ii) extend and update the
state of the art of WSN simulators elaborated in our previous works to identify
the most used and cited in scientific articles; and (iii) demonstrate the
suitability of our novel methodological approach by evaluating and comparing
the three most cited simulators, specially in terms of energy modelling and
scalability capacities. Results show that our proposed approach provides
researchers with an evaluation tool that can be used to describe and compare
WSN simulators in order to select the most appropriate one for a given scenario
