How to simulate a thermistor input without a thermistor
Thermistors are resistors with some reasonable level of resistance to be measured by a data acquisition system (DAQS). It would not be reasonable to try to test with zero ohms short. 

The DAQS will typically be measuring the voltage drop across the thermistor when a current is biased through the device. Your proposed short circuit would imply no voltage to measure. It is not uncommon to bias a thermistor with a constant current. The known current makes it easy to use Ohms law to relate the measured voltage to the thermistor resistance. The other scheme used is to place the thermistor in a voltage divider with a fixed precision resistor that is then connected to a known fixed voltage. The DAQS reads the divider voltage and it is easy to compute the thermistor resistance using the voltage divider formula.

Care must be used to not put to much current through the thermistor part to minimize self heating. Self heating will clearly cause reading of the wrong temperature.