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.
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A Practical Approach to the Analysis of Networks
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9783709107416
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Springer Nature
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter