Network Analysis

Pioneering introduction of unprecedented breadth and scope to inferential and statistical methods for network analysis.

This book presents a perspective of network analysis as a tool to find and quantify significant structures in the interaction patterns between different types of entities. Moreover, network analysis provides the basic means to relate these structures to properties of the entities. It has proven itself to be useful for the analysis of biological and social networks, but also for networks describing complex systems in economy, psychology, geography, and various other fields. Today, network analysis packages in the open-source platform R and other open-source software projects enable scientists from all fields to quickly apply network analytic methods to their data sets. Altogether, these applications offer such a wealth of network analytic methods that it can be overwhelming for someone just entering this field. This book provides a road map through this jungle of network analytic methods, offers advice on how to pick the best method for a given network analytic project, and how to avoid common pitfalls. It introduces the methods which are most often used to analyze complex networks, e.g., different global network measures, types of random graph models, centrality indices, and networks motifs. In addition to introducing these methods, the central focus is on network analysis literacy – the competence to decide when to use which of these methods for which type of question. Furthermore, the book intends to increase the reader's competence to read original literature on network analysis by providing a glossary and intensive translation of formal notation and mathematical symbols in everyday speech. Different aspects of network analysis literacy – understanding formal definitions, programming tasks, or the analysis of structural measures and their interpretation – are deepened in various exercises with provided solutions. This text is an excellent, if not the best starting point for all scientists who want to harness the power of network analysis for their field of expertise.

High-throughput measurements of gene expression and genetic marker data facilitate systems biologic and systems genetic data analysis strategies. Gene co-expression networks have been used to study a variety of biological systems, bridging the gap from individual genes to biologically or clinically important emergent phenotypes.

An in-depth, comprehensive and practical guide to egocentric network analysis, focusing on fundamental theoretical, research design, and analytic issues.

‘Network’ is a heavily overloaded term, so that ‘network analysis’ means different things to different people. Specific forms of network analysis are used in the study of diverse structures such as the Internet, interlocking directorates, transportation systems, epidemic spreading, metabolic pathways, the Web graph, electrical circuits, project plans, and so on. There is, however, a broad methodological foundation which is quickly becoming a prerequisite for researchers and practitioners working with network models. From a computer science perspective, network analysis is applied graph theory. Unlike standard graph theory books, the content of this book is organized according to methods for specific levels of analysis (element, group, network) rather than abstract concepts like paths, matchings, or spanning subgraphs. Its topics therefore range from vertex centrality to graph clustering and the evolution of scale-free networks. In 15 coherent chapters, this monograph-like tutorial book introduces and surveys the concepts and methods that drive network analysis, and is thus the first book to do so from a methodological perspective independent of specific application areas.

Presenting a comprehensive resource for the mastery of network analysis in R, the goal of Network Analysis with R is to introduce modern network analysis techniques in R to social, physical, and health scientists. The mathematical foundations of network analysis are emphasized in an accessible way and readers are guided through the basic steps of network studies: network conceptualization, data collection and management, network description, visualization, and building and testing statistical models of networks. As with all of the books in the Use R! series, each chapter contains extensive R code and detailed visualizations of datasets. Appendices will describe the R network packages and the datasets used in the book. An R package developed specifically for the book, available to readers on GitHub, contains relevant code and real-world network datasets as well.

The revised and updated edition of this bestselling text provides an accessible introduction to the theory and practice of network analysis in the social sciences. It gives a clear and authoritative guide to the general framework of network analysis, explaining the basic concepts, technical measures and reviewing the available computer programs. The book outlines both the theoretical basis of network analysis and the key techniques for using it as a research tool. Building upon definitions of points, lines and paths, John Scott demonstrates their use in clarifying such measures as density, fragmentation and centralization. He identifies the various cliques, components and circles into which networks are formed, and outlines an approach to the study of socially structured positions. He also discusses the use of multidimensional methods for investigating social networks. Social Network Analysis is an invaluable resource for researchers across the social sciences and for students of social theory and research methods.

SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS As social media dominates our lives in increasing intensity, the need for developers to understand the theory and applications is ongoing as well. This book serves that purpose. Social network analysis is the solicitation of network science on social networks, and social occurrences are denoted and premeditated by data on coinciding pairs as the entities of opinion. The book features: Social network analysis from a computational perspective using python to show the significance of fundamental facets of network theory and the various metrics used to measure the social network. An understanding of network analysis and motivations to model phenomena as networks. Real-world networks established with human-related data frequently display social properties, i.e., patterns in the graph from which human behavioral patterns can be analyzed and extracted. Exemplifies information cascades that spread through an underlying social network to achieve widespread adoption. Network analysis that offers an appreciation method to health systems and services to illustrate, diagnose, and analyze networks in health systems. The social web has developed a significant social and interactive data source that pays exceptional attention to social science and humanities research. The benefits of artificial intelligence enable social media platforms to meet an increasing number of users and yield the biggest marketplace, thus helping social networking analysis distribute better customer understanding and aiding marketers to target the right customers. Audience The book will interest computer scientists, AI researchers, IT and software engineers, mathematicians.