Social and Information

Networks (SIN)
Course Code : CSE3021
Slot: C2/G2
Instructor Details
O Dr. W.B. Vasantha
O Cabin Number: SJT 310 A19
O Phone: 9094230877
O Email: vasantha.wb@vit.ac.in
 Module one –
Introduction
O Introduction to social network analysis
O Fundamental concepts in network analysis
O Social network data
O Notations for social network data
O Graphs and Matrices.
 Module Two –
Measures & Metrics
O Strategic network formation
O network centrality measures:
O Degree, betweenness, closeness,
eigenvector
O Network centralization–density –
reciprocity – transitivity
O Ego network – measures for ego network
O Dyadic network – triadic network - cliques
- groups- clustering – search.
 Module Three –
Community Networks
O Community structure
O Modularity,
O Overlapping communities
O Detecting communities in social networks
O Discovering communities: methodology,
applications –
O Community measurement
O Evaluating communities
O Applications
 Module Four –
Models
O Small world network
O Watts–Strogatz networks
O Statistical Models for Social Networks
O Network evolution models: dynamical models,
growing models
O Nodal attribute model: exponential random
graph models
O Preferential attachment - Power Law
O Random network model: Erdos-Renyi and
Barabasi-Albert Epidemics
O Hybrid models of Network Formation
Module Five – Semantic Web
O Modelling and aggregating social network
data
O Developing social semantic application
O Evaluation of web-based social network
extraction
O Data Mining
O Text Mining in social network
O Tools
O Case study
Module Six – Visualization
O Visualization of social networks
O Novel visualizations and interactions for
social networks
O Applications of social network analysis
O Tools - Social Network Analysis
O R Tools for Social Network Analysis
O Social Networks Visualiser (SocNetV) -
Pajek.
 Module Seven –
Security & Applications
O Managing Trust in online social network
O Security and Privacy in online social
network
O Security requirement for social network in
Web 2.0
O Say It with Colors: Language-Independent
Gender Classification on Twitter
O Friends and Circles - TUCAN: Twitter User
Centric ANalyzer.
Module eight: Recent Trends
O Based on recent research
Ref Books
O Stanley Wasserman,
Katherine Faust, Social
network analysis:
Methods and
applications, Cambridge
university press, 2009.
O PDF is available online
Ref Books
O R. Zafarani, M. A. Abbasi,
and H. Liu, Social Media
Mining: An Introduction,
Cambridge University
Press, 2014.
O Free book and slides at
http://socialmediamining
.info/
Ref Books
O Peter Mika, Social
network and semantic
web, Springer 2007.
O PDF is available online
 Course Split up
O Weightage is as follows:
O Quiz – 10 Marks (Before CAT I)
O DA1 – 10 marks (Visualisation Tools)
O DA2 – 10 marks (Recent Trends)
O CAT 1 – 15 marks
O CAT2 -15 marks
O FAT – 40 marks
O Additional Learning – Extra 10 marks
 J-component – Project
O Maximum 5 Members
O Review 1 – Topic selection and Literature
Survey – Before CAT I
O Review 2 – 40% implementation of project
– Before CAT II
O Review 3 – Complete project + Viva – one
week before FAT
Relevance of Social Networks
Mark Zuckerberg
Chief Executive Officer of
Facebook

• Co-Founder of Facebook
• World’s 3rd richest person
• Age 34
Guess the Company from the
logo
• Cambridge Analytica Ltd was a British political
consulting firm which combined data mining, data
brokerage, and data analysis with strategic
communication during the electoral processes.
• Alongside social media giant Facebook, Cambridge
Analytica is at the center of an ongoing dispute over
the alleged harvesting and use of personal data.
• Trump's election victory and the Brexit vote.
• Social network is very important in todays
world
Introduction to Social Network
Analysis
O Social network analysis is based on an
assumption of the importance of
relationships among interacting
units.
O The social network perspective
encompasses theories, models, and
applications that are expressed in
terms of relational concepts or
processes.
 Important Terms
O Actors and their actions are viewed as
interdependent rather than independent,
autonomous units
O Relational ties (linkages) between actors are
channels for transfer or "flow" of resources (either
material or nonmaterial)
O Network models focusing on individuals view the
network structural environment as providing
opportunities for or constraints on individual action
O Network models conceptualize structure (social,
economic, political, and so forth) as lasting patterns
of relations among actors
O The unit of analysis in network analysis is not
the individual, but an entity consisting of a
collection of individuals and the linkages
among them.
O Network methods focus on dyads (two actors
and their ties), triads (three actors and their
ties), or larger systems (subgroups of
individuals, or entire networks.
O As defined in Wasserman, S. and K. Faust,
1994, Social Network Analysis. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
O Social network analysis has emerged as a set
of methods for the analysis of social
structures, methods which are specifically
geared towards an investigation of the
relational aspects of these structures.
O The use of these methods, therefore,
depends on the availability of relational
rather than attribute data.
O Scott, J., 1992, Social Network
Analysis. Newbury Park CA: Sage.
O Network analysis (or social network
analysis) is a set of mathematical methods
used in social psychology, sociology,
ethology, and anthropology.
O Network analysis assumes that the way the
members of a group can communicate to
each other affect some important features
of that group (efficiency when performing a
task, moral satisfaction, leadership).
O Network analysis makes use of mathematical
tools and concepts that belong to graph theory.
O A network models a communication group. It
consists of a number of nodes (each node
corresponding to a member of the group) and a
number of edges (or ties)
O each one being associated to a communication
connection between two actors.
O Network data is stored in an adjacency matrix.
Commonly, the [i,j] element of the adjacency
matrix corresponds to the communication
behavior of actor i to actor j.
O Social network analysis is focused on uncovering
the patterning of people's interaction.
O Network analysis is based on the intuitive notion
that these patterns are important features of the
lives of the individuals who display them.
O Network analysts believe that how an individual
lives depends in large part on how that individual is
tied into the larger web of social connections.
O Many believe, moreover, that the success or failure
of societies and organizations often depends on the
patterning of their internal structure.
O From the outset, the network approach to the study of
behavior has involved two commitments:
O (1) it is guided by formal theory organized in mathematical
terms,
O (2) it is grounded in the systematic analysis of empirical data.
O It was not until 1970s, therefore--when modern discrete
combinatorics (particularly graph theory) experienced rapid
development and relatively powerful computers became
readily available--that the study of social networks really
began to take off as an interdisciplinary specialty.
O Since then its growth has been rapid. It has found important
applications in organizational behavior, inter-organizational
relations, the spread of contagious diseases, mental health,
social support, the diffusion of information and animal social
organization.
The Social Networks Perspective
O social network analysis is a distinct research
perspective within the social and behavioral
sciences; distinct because social network analysis
is based on an assumption of the importance of
relationships among interacting units.
O encompasses theories, models, and applications
that are expressed in terms of relational concepts
or processes.
O That is relations defined by linkages among units
are a fundamental component of network theories.
O Actors and their actions are viewed as
interdependent rather than independent,
autonomous units
O Relational ties (linkages) between actors
are channels for transfer or "flow" of
resources (either material or nonmaterial)
O Network models focusing on individuals
view the network structural environment as
providing opportunities for or constraints
on individual action
O Network models conceptualize structure
(social, economic, political, and so forth) as
lasting patterns of relations among , actors
 Fundamental concepts in
network analysis
O Actors : Social network analysis is concerned
with understanding the linkages among social
entities and the implications of these linkages.
O The social entities are referred to as actors .
O Actors are discrete individual, corporate, or
collective social units.
O Examples of actors are people in a group,
departments within a corporation, public
service agencies in a city, or nation-states in the
world system.
 Relational Ties
O Actors are linked to one another by
social ties.
O The range and type of ties can be
quite extensive.
O The defining feature of a tie is that it
establishes a linkage between a pair
of actors.
 Types of Relational ties
O Evaluation of one person by another (for example expressed
friendship, liking, or respect)
O Transfers of material resources (for example business transactions,
lending or borrowing things)
O Association or affiliation (for example jointly attending a social
event, or belonging to the same social club)
O Behavioural interaction (talking together, sending messages)
O Movement between places or statuses (migration, social or physical
mobility)
O Physical connection (a road, river, or bridge connecting two points)
O Formal relations (for example authority)
O Biological relationship (kinship or descent)
 Dyad
O At the most basic level, a linkage or relationship establishes
a tie between two actors.
O The tie is inherently a property of the pair and therefore is
not thought of as pertaining simply to an individual actor.
O Many kinds of network analysis are concerned with
understanding ties among pairs.
O All of these approaches take the dyad as the unit of analysis.
O A dyad consists of a pair of actors and the (possible) tie(s)
between them.
O Dyadic analyses focus on the properties of pairwise
relationships, such as whether ties are reciprocated or not,
or whether specific types of multiple relationships tend to
occur together.
 Triad
O Relationships among larger subsets of actors may also
be studied.
O Many important social network methods and models
focus on the triad; a subset of three actors and the
(possible) tie(s) among them.
O Balance theory has informed and motivated many
triadic analyses. Of particular interest are whether the
triad is transitive (if actor i "likes" actor j, and actor j in
turn "likes" actor k, then actor i will also «like" actor k),
and whether the triad is balanced (if actors i and j like
each other, then i and j should be similar in their
evaluation of a third actor, k, and if i and j dislike each
other, then they should differ in their evaluation of a
third actor, k).
 Subgroups
O Dyads are pairs of actors and
associated ties, triads are triples of
actors and associated ties.
O It follows that we can define a
subgroup of actors as any subset of
actors, and all ties among them.
O Locating and studying subgroups
using specific criteria has been an
important concern in social network
analysis.
 Group
O Network analysis is not simply concerned
with collections of dyads, or triads, or
subgroups. To a large extent, the power of
network analysis lies in the ability to model
the relationships among systems of actors.
O A system consists of ties among members
of some (more or less bounded) group. The
notion of group has been given a wide range
of definitions by social scientists.
O A group is the collection of all actors on
which ties are to be measured.
 Relation
O The collection of ties of a specific
kind among members of a group is
called a relation.
O For example, the set of friendships
among pairs of children in a
classroom, or the set of formal
diplomatic ties maintained by
pairs of nations in the world, are
ties that define relations.
 Social Network
O Having defined actor, group, and
relation we can now give a more explicit
definition of social network.
O A social network consists of a finite set
or sets of actors and the relation or
relations defined on them.
O The presence of relational information
is a critical and defining feature of a
social network.
 Social network data
O What are Network Data?
O Social network data measures at
least one structural variable in a
set of actors
O Concerns and theories focus on
identifying structural variables
and measurement techniques
Social network data
 Structural and Composition
Variables
O Structural Variables – variables measured on
pairs of actors, cornerstone of social network
data sets (ex. transactions among corporations,
friendships between people, trade between
nations)
O Composition Variables – actor attribute
variables; measurements of actor attributes that
are of the standard social and behavioral science
variety, and defined at the level of the individual
(ex. gender, ethnicity for people, geographical
location)
 Modes
Mode –
distinct set of entities on which
the structural variables are
measured:
one mode, (one set of actors)
two-mode, (two set of actors)
etc.
 Affiliation Variables
O Affiliation variables – variables that are part of
affiliation networks
O Affiliation networks – special social networks that
arise in two-mode networks when there are two
modes, one of them an event (ex. clubs or volunteer
organizations), one set of actors
O Example: Considering a set of actors, and three elite
clubs in some city, we define an affiliation variable for
each of these three clubs. Each of these variables gives
us a subset of actors who belong to one of the clubs.
 Boundary Specification and
Sampling
O What is your population?
O Boundary – allowing a researcher to describe and
identify the populations of a study
O Defined based on frequency of interaction and
intensity of ties among members as contrasted with
non-members
O Approaches to boundary specification - while the
realist approach defines boundaries as actors in the
data set perceive themselves, the nominalist approach
defines boundaries through the theoretical research
concerns
O A set of actors consist of all social units to which
there are measurements (either structural
variables, or structural and compositional
variables)
O Small populations have clearly defined actor set
boundaries (ex. classrooms, offices, social club,
and villages); large populations have less well-
defined boundaries (ex. interorganizational
networks in a community)
O Snowball sampling and random nets – special
sampling techniques when the boundary is
unknown
 Types of Networks
O Number of modes refers to the
number of distinct kinds of
social entities in the network
O Networks categorized by how
many modes the network has,
and by whether affiliational
variables are present
 One-Mode Networks
Actors
Actors may be people, subgroups, organizations,
collectives/aggregates (communities, nation-
states)
Subgroups usually consist of people
Collectives/aggregates usually consist of
organizations and subgroups
O Actor attributes.
O The characteristics of the actors constituting
the network can be measured
 Relations
O Relations are usually viewed as representing specific
connections, or “relational contents”
O The kinds of relations may be:
O Individual evaluations: friendship, liking, respect, etc
O Transactions or transfer of material resources:
lending/borrowing, buying/selling
O Transfer of non-material resources: communications,
sending/receiving information
O Interactions
O Movement: physical (from place-to-place), social
(between occupations or statuses)
O Formal roles
O Kinship: marriage, descent
 Two-Mode Networks
O Two Sets of Actors
O Actors can be of the general types as those
in one-mode networks
O Relations are measured in at least one way
between actors in the two sets
O Ex. Collection of corporate headquarters
and non-profit groups in the a city
measuring flow of donations from
corporations to non-profit groups
(unidirectional flow)
 Affiliation Networks
O One Set of Actors – One Set of Events
O Affiliation Networks (or Membership
Networks), arise when one set of actors
is measured with respect to attendance
at, or affiliation with, a set of events or
activities; the first mode in an affiliation
network is a set of actors, and the
second is a set of events which affiliates
the actors
O Actors types can be exactly the same as those in
one-mode and two-mode networks
O Actors must be affiliated with at least one event
O Events are defined on the basis of membership,
attendance, or socializing in a group, etc.
O Nature of events depend on the types of actors
involved
O Attributes. Actor attribute variables are of the same
types as those for one-mode and two-mode
networks
O Two set of attribute variables can be found in actors
and events
 Special Dyadic Networks
O Special Dyadic – non-network
relational data sampled from a larger
population centering on the interaction
between pairs; ex. husband-wife, father-
son
O An actor may relate to a limited number
of “special” other actors; this design can
constrain interactions among actors so
that all people cannot interact with all
others
 Ego-centered Network
O Ego-centered Network consists of a
focal actor, ego, as sets of alters with
ties to the ego and measurements on
the ties
O Ex. Each respondent reports on a set
of alters to whom they are tied, and
on the ties among these alters
(Personal network data)
 Network Data, Measurement,
and Collection
O Measurement
O Social network data is different from standard social and
behavioral sciences in that its data consist of at least one
relation measured among a set of actors
O Presence of relations has implications among many
measurements such as the unit of observations (actor,
pair of actors, relational tie, or event), modeling unit
(the actor, dyad, triad, subset of actors, or network), and
the quantification of relations (directional vs.
nondirectional)
O Modeling unit – level of network analysis being studied
O Unit of observation is the entity on which
measurements are taken and an actor from
whom information about ties is elicited.
O Modeling Unit
O Levels at which network data can be
modeled or summarized are Actor, Dyad,
Triad, Subgroup, Set of actors or network
 Rational quantification
O Rational quantification refers to measurements
and whether the relation is directional or
nondirectional, and whether it is dichotomous or
valued
O Directional – relational tie has an origin and
destination
O Nondirectional – relation has no direction,
O Dichotomous – relation is coded as either present or
absent
O Valued – relation has values such as strength,
intensity, or frequency
 Collection
O Social network data can be collected through the
following techniques: Questionnaires, Interviews,
Observations, Archival records, Experiments, and Other
techniques such as ego-centered, small world, and
diaries/journals
O Questionnaire
O Most commonly used collection method
O Usually contains questions used to identify relations
between actors
O Three types of question formats: Roster vs. free recall,
Free vs. fixed choice, and Ratings vs. complete rankings
O Roster vs. Free Recall – issue of whether
questionnaires should be presented with a complete
list, roster, or respondents be allowed to generate lists
of names, free recall
O Roster can only be used when researcher knows entire
members of the set prior to data gathering (Ex. Friends
in a class)
O Free recall (a format where respondents generate the
lists of names) can be used when entire members of
the set may not be presented (Ex. Actors are asked to
name other actors, but were not presented with a
roster in studies such as Friends in two junior high
schools or community elites)
O Free vs. Fixed Choice
O On how many nominations respondents can provide,
O Free choice – actors are not given constraints
O Fixed choice – actors are given constraints
O Ratings vs. Complete Ranking
O used to reflect intensity of strength of ties
O Ratings require respondents to assign a value or rating
to each tie
O Complete rankings require respondents to rank their
ties to all other actors
O Full rank-orders and rating scales with multiple
responses generate valued relations; dichotomous and
directional
O Interview
O Used to gather network data when questionnaires are not
feasible (Ex. CEO interviews in Minneapolis/St. Paul)

O Observation
O Used to gather network data in field research, usually
relations among relatively small groups of people who are
engaged in face-to-face interactions
O Useful with people who are not able to respond to
questionnaires or interviews
O Useful for collecting affiliation data for attendance at events

O Archival records
O Measures ties through examining measurements from past
recorded interactions
O Ex. Patterns of citations among scholars examining “who
cites whom” to study diffusion of a scientific innovation
Other
O Cognitive social structure is a design where
respondents are asked about perceptions of
network ties and perceived relations are
measured (Ex. Fast food restaurant
perceptions)
O This design can collect more information
than general sociometric designs as the
respondent reports not only on their own
ties, but ties belonging to other actors
  Experimental
O Method 1 – select a group of actors, observe
their interactions in an experimentally
controlled situations, then record interactions
between pairs of actors
O Method 2 – select a group of actors, specify
which actors can interact with each other
during the experiment, then record
interactions between only those specified
pairs of actors (Ex. Group problem-solving
experiments)
O Ego-centered – respondent is set up as ego with data
measured among the ties from the ego to the alters (Ex.
Survey about the people with whom you discussed matters
important to you)
O   Small world is an attempt to determine how many actors a
respondent is removed from a target individual based on
acquaintanceship
O Can be used to compare demographic characteristics and
chains
O Reverse small world focuses on ties from a specific
respondent to a variety of hypothetical targets
O   Diary – respondents are asked to keep a daily record of
whom they interact
O Variance of ego-centered
O Data sets include information on the relation type and
characteristics of the alters
Longitudinal Data Collection
O Focuses on how ties in a network
change over time and how well the
past can predict the future using
methods previously discussed
(questionnaires, interview,
observation, etc.)
O Commonly used to examine
friendships over time
O Ex. Interaction among fraternity
members over time
 Measurement Validity,
Reliability, Accuracy, Error
O True structure – social structure referring to
a relatively prolonged and stable pattern of
interpersonal relations
O Observed structure – measured network
data that might contain error
 Accuracy
O   Issue of informant accuracy – information
collected using verbal reports and information
collected through observation
O People are not good at accurately reporting on their
interactions in particular situations
O   “True” structures are of most interest and
network studies should study focusing on long-term
patterns, not particular interactions of individuals
O Issue comes up when looking at interactions among
organizations being reported on by members with
imperfect information about the organization
 Validity
O A concept of a measure is valid to the extent
that it measures what it is intended to
measure
O Construct validity, a more formal construct,
arises when measures of a concept behave
as expected in theoretical predictions and
can be studied by examining how these
measures behave in a range of theoretical
propositions
 Reliability
O A measure of a variable or concept is reliable if
repeated measurements give the same estimates
of the variable
O Three approaches have been used to assess the
reliability of social network data: test-retest
comparison, comparison of alternative question
formats, and reciprocity of sociometric choices
O “True” value of a variable must be assumed to
not change over time for test-retest comparison
to be appropriate
O Reliability can be assessed at analysis
O Sociometric questions using ratings or full rank
orders are more reliable than fixed choice
designs
O Sociometric questions about more intense or
intimate relations have higher rates of
reciprocation than sociometric questions about
less intense or intimate relations (Marsden, et
al.)
O Reliability of aggregate measures (ex.
popularity) is higher than the reliability of
“choices” made by individual actors (Burt, et
al.) different levels of analysis
 Measurement error
O Occurs when there is a discrepancy
between the “true” score or value of a
concept and the observed (measured)
value of that concept
O Measurement error – the difference
between the true and observed values
O Levels of analysis must be kept in mind
when determining the implications of
measurement error
Notations for social network data

O Graph Theoretic Notation (GTN)

O simplest, visual, descriptive
O Sociometric Notation (SmN)
O most common in SNA literature
O Algebraic Notation (AN)
O least common, most complex,
inferential
Graph Theoretic Notation

O Elementary way to represent actors and

relations
O Centrality and prestige methods
O Cohesive subgroup ideas
O Dyadic and triadic methods
O Based on graph theory – Will be dealt later
 Graph
O Graph - consisting of nodes joined by lines.
O Set of actors as N.
O The set N contains g actors in number,
which we will denote by N = {n1, n2 , . . . ,
ng}.
O L is set of lines
O L = {l1, l2, …, lh}
Connections
TYPES OF CONNECTIONS
(NOTATIONS)
Directional connections
Directional Graph <, >
Non Directional Graph (, )
 Single Relation - Example
O Directed relation based on friendship
Multiple Relations
 Sociometric Notation
O Sociometry is the study of positive and negative
affective relations, such as liking/disliking and
friends/enemies, among a set of people.
O A social network data set consisting of people and
measured / affective relations between people is
often referred to as Sociometric.
O Relational data are often presented in two-way
matrices termed sociomatrices.
O The two dimensions of a sociomatrix are indexed by
the sending actors (the rows) and the receiving
actors (the columns).
O A one-mode network, the sociomatrix wiIl be square
O A sociomatrix for a dichotomous relation is
exactly the adjacency matrix for the graph (or
sociogram) quantifying the ties between the
actors for the relation in question.

O Pairs listing the same actor twice, (ni, ni), i = 1,

2, . . . , g, are called "self-choices" for a specific
relation and are usually undefined. These self-
choices lie along the main diagonal of the
sociomatrix; consequently, the main diagonal of
a sociomatrix is usually full of undefined
entries.
O If the relation is valued and discrete.
O Assume that the possible values for the
relation comes from the set {0, 1, 2, . . . , C -
I}, for C = 2, 3, . . . .
O If the relation is dichotomous, then C = 2
possible values.
 Multiple relations
O consisting of a collection of g = 6 students and
R = 3 relations:
O 1) Friendship at beginning of the school year;
O 2) Friendship at end of the school year; and
O 3) Lives near.
O All three relations are dichotomous, so that C1 =
C2 = C3 = 2. These three relations are pictured
in a single multivariate or multirelational
sociogram.
O Consider the first sociomatrix in Table 3.1.
O The entry which quantifies Allison (nI) as a
sender (the first row) and Drew (n2) as a receiver
(the second column) on relation X1. This entry is
in the (1, 2) cell of this sociomatrix, and contains
a 1 indicating that
O X121 is the value of the tie from n1 to n2 on
relation X1
O Note also that X211 = 0, indicating that Drew does
not choose Allison as a friend at the beginning
of the school year; that is, Drew / Allison.
O This friendship is clearly one-sided, and is not
reciprocated.
 Sociometric Notation
O Most common in social literature.
O Study of positive and negative affective relations
(friends/enemies).
O Sociometric: a social network data set consisting of people,
measuring affective relations.
O Sociomatricies: relational data presented in two-way
matrices, (rows = sending actors, columns = receiving
actors).
O “A sociomatrix for a dichotomous relation is exactly the
adjacency matrix for the graph (or sociogram) quantifying
the ties between the actors for the relation in question,
O The relation can take on any value from 0 to C-1.
O The diagonals of the sociomatrices are undefined
 Algebraic Notations
O “Most useful for multirelational networks since it
easily denotes the “combinations” of relations in
these networks”
O Notation scheme cannot handle valued relations or
actor attributes.
O x(i)(F)(j) = 1
O [n(i) is a Friend of n(j), implies that there is a “1” in
the cell at row i and column j of the sociomatrix for
this relation]
 Two set of Actors
O First Actor = sender,
O N = first set of actors,
O g = number of actors
O Second Actors = receiver,
O M = first set of receivers,
O h = number of actors
O There are hC2 dyads that can be formed
from actors in M .
 Different Types of Pairs:
O Homogeneous: pairs that consist of actors from
the same sets.
O Sender and Receiver both belong to N .
O Sender and Receiver both belong to M .
O Heterogeneous: pairs that consist of actors from
different sets.
O Sender belongs to N and Receiver belongs to M .
O Sender belongs to M and Receiver belongs to N .
 Sociometric Notation:

O The (i,j)th entry of the sociomatrix X(r) is defined

as:
O x(i)(j)(r) = the value of the tie from n(i) to m(j) on
the relation X (r)
 Graphs
O Graph: a model for a social network with an
undirected dichotomous relation.
O Adjacent: l(k) = [n(i), n(j)], i and j are said to be
adjacent.
O Incident: a node is said to be incident with a line if
its one of the unordered pair of nodes defining the
line.
O Trivial: a graph containing only one node.
O Empty: a graph containing nodes but no lines.
 Subgraphs
O Subgraph: G (s) is a subgraph of G if the set of
nodes/lines of G (s) is a subset of the set of nodes/lines of
G.
O Dyads: a pair of actors and the possible tie between
them.
O Triads: consists of three nodes and the possible lines
between them (0-3).
O Forbidden triad (Granovetter, 1973): only two lines,
unlikely that there is no relation between the nodes
without a line.
O Degree of a node [d(n(i))]: a measure of activity of the
actor it represents, can be found by counting the number
of lines incident with it
O d-regular: all the degrees of all the nodes are equal.
O Density: the proportion of possible lines that are
actually present in the graph (0 to 1)

O Degree: the number of lines incident with each node in

a graph.
O Complete graph: all lines are present, all nodes are
adjacent

O It is often important to know whether it is possible to

reach some node n(i) from another node n(j), to know
how many ways it can be done, and which of these ways
is optimal according to some criteria
O Walk (W): sequence of nodes and lines in which
each node is incident with the lines following
and preceding it in the sequence (lines can be
counted more than once).
O Length of a walk (l): number of occurrences of
lines in it.
O Origin of a walk: node that the walk begins
with.
O Terminus of a walk: node that the walk ends
with.
O Inverse of a walk (W-1): walk listed in exactly
the opposite order.
O Trail: a walk in which all of the lines are distinct, though a
node can be included more than once.
O Length of a trail: number of lines in the trail.
O Path: a walk in which all nodes and all lines are distinct.
O Reachable: when there is a path between two nodes, the
nodes are said to be reachable.
O Closed walk: begins and ends at the same node.
O Cycle: closed walk of at least three nodes in which all lines
are distinct, and all nodes except the beginning and end are
distinct.
O Semi-cycle: closed sequence of distinct nodes and arcs in
which each node is either adjacent to or adjacent from the
previous node in the sequence.
O Tour: closed walk in which each line in the graph is used at
least once, important in terms of balance and clusterability
in signed graphs.
O Eulerian trails: closed trails that include every line exactly
once.
O Hamiltonian cycle: every node in the graph is included
exactly once.
O Connected graph: there is a path between every pair of
nodes in the graph (if not, its disconnected).
O Component: is a subgraph in which there is a path
between all pairs of nodes in the subgraph (and there is no
path between a node in the component and any node not
in the component).
O Geodesic: shortest path between two nodes
O “Distances are quite important in social network analyses.
They quantify how far apart each pair of nodes is, and are
used in two of the centrality measures and are important
consideration for constructing some kinds of cohesive
subgroups”
O Eccentricity or association number of a node is the largest
geodesic distance between that node and any other node.
O Diameter: the length of the largest geodesic between any
pair of nodes.
O Cutpoints: a node where the number of components in the
graph that contains the node is fewer than the number of
components in the subgraph that results from deleting the
node from the graph.
O Bridge: is a line such that the graph containing the line has
fewer components than the subgraph that is obtained after
the line is removed.
O l-line cut: is a set of l lines that, if deleted, disconnects the
graph.
O Cohesive graphs have many short geodesics and small
diameters.
O Vulnerable graphs are more likely to become
disconnected if a few nodes or lines are removed.
O Point-connectivity or node connectivity [k(G )]:
minimum number of nodes (k) that must be removed to
make the graph disconnected or to leave a trivial graph.
O Line-connectivity or edge connectivity [λ(G )]:
minimum number of lines (λ) that must be removed to
disconnect the graph or leave a trivial graph.
O Isomorphic: two graphs (G ) and (G *) with a one-to-one
mapping from the nodes of (G ) to the nodes of (G *) that
preserves the adjacency of the nodes (will be identical on
all graph theoretic properties).
O Complement: a graph which has the same set of nodes as
another graph.
O Tree: a graph that is connected and contains no cycles.
O Forest: a graph that is disconnected and contains no
cycles.
 Bipartite Graphs
O Bipartite Graphs: nodes of a graph can be
partitioned into two subsets, in which every
line has an unordered pair of nodes with a
node in each subset (complete bipartite
graph has every node in subset one adjacent
to every node in subset two).
 DIRECTED GRAPHS
O Directional: ties are oriented from one actor to another.
O Directed graph or digraph: consists of two sets of information:
a set of nodes and a set of arcs (ordered pairs).
O Isomorphism classes of dyads:
O Null dyad: no arcs between two nodes.
O Asymmetric dyad: arc between the two nodes going in one
direction.
O Mutual or reciprocal dyad: two arcs between the nodes, one
going in one direction and one in the opposite direction.
O Indegree of a node: number of nodes that are adjacent to n(i).
O Outdegree of a node: number of nodes adjacent from n(i).
O Directed walk: sequence of alternating nodes and arcs so
that each arc has its origin at the previous node and its
terminus at the subsequent node.
O Directed trail: directed walk in which no arc is included
more than once.
O Directed path: directed walk in which no node and no arc
is included more than once.
O Reachability: there is a direct path from n(i) to n(j) [(j) is
reachable from n(i)].
O Connectivity by path or semipath: Weakly, Unilaterally,
Strongly, Recursively (p. 132).
O Connectivity for digraph: Weakly, Unilaterally, Strongly,
Recursively (p. 133).
O Converse: reversing the direction of all arcs.
O Tournaments: represents a set of actors competing in some
event and a relation indicating superior performances in
competition.
O SIGNED GRAPHS (vocabulary is the same for graphs
except where noted)
O Signed: lines carry a positive or negative sign (valence).
O VALUED GRAPHS (vocabulary is the same for graphs
except where noted)
O Valued: the strength or intensity of each line or arc is
recorded [can refer to directional (dollar amount of exports)
and nondirectional (number of interactions) data].
O Integer weighted digraph: all values in the valued digraph
are from the set of integers.
O Markov chains: set of graphs whose values are
probabilities.
O Value of a path: is equal to the smallest value attached to
any line in it.
O Reachability: level is set at the strongest line between the
nodes.
O Path length: sum of the values of the lines in it.
 MULTIGRAPHS
O Multigraph or multivariate graph: allows more than one
relation or set of lines.
O “If more than one relation is measured on the same set of
actors, then the graph representing this network must allow
each pair of nodes to be connected in more than one way”
O HYPERGRAPHS
O Appropriate for membership or affiliation networks.
O Hypergraph: consists of a set of objects and a collection of
subsets of objects, in which each object belongs to at least
on subset, and no subset is empty.
O Points: objects.
O Edges: collections of objects.
 RELATIONS
O RELATIONS
O Relations: ordered pairs of actors in a network
between whom a substantive tie is present.
O Reflexivity: all possible ties are present in a relation.
O Symmetric: all the dyads are either mutual or null.
O Transitive: essentially, if j chooses k as a friend, and
k chooses l, then j will choose l as a friend.
 MATRICES
O Sociomatrix (X): record which pairs of nodes are adjacent
(contains only 1’s and 0’s for a graph, and is symmetric for a
nondirectional relation).
O Incident matrix (I): records which lines are incident with
which nodes (nodes index rows, lines columns).
O Martices for hypergraphs: codes which points are incident
with which edges.
O Size (order): the number of rows and columns in the
matrix.
O Cell: each entry.
O Main Diagonal: entries are “self-choices” or loops, may be
undefined.
O Matrix Permutation: any reordering of the objects
(helpful in seeing patterns).
O Transpose: interchanging the rows and columns
(change direction of ties between actors).
O Addition: sum of the elements in the corresponding
cells (same size matrices).
O Subtraction: difference between elements.
O Multiplication: see p. 157.
O Powers of a matrix: the matrix times itself.
O Boolean: the multiplication of matrices is referred to
as having a value of 1 or 0.