Data Collection

A discussion of network data collection, with an emphasis on surveys. I recommend skimming the "BKS informant accuracy research stream" in the Additional Readings section below. It may not win a Nobel prize, but it is a decent example of how science works. We also discuss key elements of research design, such as the choice between a whole network design and a personal network design. 

Readings

• Borgatti, S.P. and Molina, J-L. 2003. Ethical and strategic issues in organizational network analysis. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 39(3): 337-350. [pdf]

• Borgatti, S.P. and Molina, J.L. 2005. Toward ethical guidelines for network research in organizations. Social Networks. 27(2): 107-117 [pdf]

• Marsden, P.V. 1990. Network data and measurement. Annual Review of Sociology16:435-63. [pdf link]

  • Freeman, L.C., Romney, A.K., & Freeman, S. 1987. Cognitive structure and informant accuracy. American Anthropologist 89:310-325 [^pdf]

• Krackhardt, D. 1987. Cognitive social structures. Social Networks 9:109-134 [pdf]

  • Uzzi, 1996. The sources and consequences of embeddedness... American Sociological Review. [pdf] (skim this for the ethnographic parts)

Additional Readings

Missing Data

• Borgatti, S.P., Carley, K., and Krackhardt, D. 2006. Robustness of Centrality Measures under Conditions of Imperfect Data. Social Networks 28: 124–136. [pdf]

• Gueorgi Kossinets, Effects of missing data in social networks, Social Networks Volume 28, Issue 3, , July 2006, Pages 247-268.[^pdf]

• Ward, M.D., Hoff, P.D., and Lofdahl, C.L. (2003) "Identifying International Networks: Latent Spaces and Imputation," in Dynamic Social Network Modeling and Analysis: Workshop Summary and Papers , 345-359, Ronald Breiger, Kathleen Carley, and Philippa Pattison, eds., Washington, D.C., The National Academies Press. [pdf]

BKS Informant Accuracy stream

• • Killworth, Peter D. & Russell Bernard (1976) Informant accuracy in social network data. Human Organization, 35 : 269-286.

  • Bernard, H. R. &.D. Killworth (1977) Informant accuracy in social network data II. Human Communications Research, 4 : 3-18.

  • Killworth, Peter D. & Russell Bernard (1979) Informant accuracy in social network data III: A comparison of triadic structure in behavioural and cognitive data. Social Networks, 2 : 10-46.

  • Bernard, H. R., D. Killworth, & L. Sailer (1980) Informant accuracy in social network data IV: A comparison of clique-level structure in behavioral and cognitive network data. Social Networks, 2 : 191-218.

    • "A Note on Inferences Regarding Network Subgroups." Ronald S. Burt and Wm M. Bittner; Social Networks, 1981, 3(1), pp. 71-88. [pdf]

  • Bernard, H.R., Killworth, P. & Sailer, L. 1981. Summary of research on informant accuracy in network data, and on the reverse small world problem. Connections 4(2):11-25 [pdf of whole issue]

  • Romney and Faust, 1982. A.K. Romney and K. Faust , Predicting the structure of a communications network from recalled data. Social Networks 4 (1982), pp. 285–304. [pdf

  • Bernard, H. R., D. Killworth, & L. Sailer (1982) Informant accuracy in social network data V: An experimental attempt to predict actual communication from recall data. Social Science Research, 11 : 30-66.

  • Romney, A. Kimball and Susan Weller. 1984. Predicting informant accuracy from patterns of recall among individuals. Social Networks, 6:59 77.

  • Bernard, H. R., D. Killworth, D. Kronenfeld & L. Sailer (1985) On the validity of retrospective data: The problem of informant accuracy. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13: 495-517. Palo Alto : Stanford University Press

Cognitive Social Structures

• Krackhardt, D. 1987. Cognitive social structures. Social Networks 9:109-134 [pdf]

• Kilduff, Martin, and David Krackhardt 1994 * "Bringing the Individual Back In: A Structural Analysis of the Internal Market for Reputation in Organizations." Academy of Management Journal, 37: 87-108. [pdf]

• Ece Kumbasar; A. Kimball Romney; William H. Batchelder The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 100, No. 2. (Sep., 1994), pp. 477-505 [^pdf]

• J.C. Johnson and M.K. Orbach. "Perceiving the Political Landscape: Ego Biases in Cognitive Political Networks". Social Networks  24 (2002) 291-310.

Sampling

• Frank, O. (2005). Network sampling and model fitting. In P. J.Carrington, J. Scott, & S. Wasserman (Eds.), Models and methodsin social network analysis (pp. 31–56) New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Additional

• Bernard, H. R., E.C. Johnsen, P.D. Killworth, C. McCarty, G.A. Shelley, & S. Robinson (1990) Comparing four different methods for measuring personal social networks. Social Networks, 12 : 179-216.

• Brewer and Webster. 1999. Forgetting of friends and its effects on measuring friendship networks. Social Networks 21: 361-373.

• DeSoto, Clinton B. 1960 "Learning a social structure." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60: 417 421.

• Lauman, Edward 0., Peter V. Marsden, and David Prensky 1983 "The boundary specification problem in network analysis." In Ronald S. Burt and Michael J. Miner (eds.), Applied Network Analysis: A Methodological Introduction: 18 34. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. [google preview]

• Peter V. Marsden, “Recent Developments in Network Measurement,” in P.J. Carrington, J. Scott, and S. Wasserman (eds.), Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 8-30.

• Shweder, R.A. and R.G. D'Andrade. 1980. "The systematic distortion hypothesis." New Directions for Methodology of Social and Behavioral Science 4: 37-58 [pdf]

Examples

• • Pp. 627-42 of Daniel A. McFarland, “Student Resistance: How the Formal and Informal Organization of Classrooms Facilitate Everyday Forms of Student Defiance.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (2001): 612-78.; much of the rest of the article is studied in Part VII of the course.

  • Esp. pp. 51-53 in Rob Cross, Wayne Baker, and Andrew Parker, “What Creates Energy in Organizations?” MIT Sloan Management Review 44 (Summer 2003): 51-56.

  • Mario Diani, pp. 175-85 of “Network Analysis,” in Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg (eds.), Methods of Social Movement Research (University of Minnesota Press, 2002, pp. 173-200).

  • Elisabeth S. Clemens and Martin D. Hughes, pp. 209-14 of “Recovering Past Protest: Historical Research on Social Movements,” Klandermans & Staggenborg (ibid., pp. 201-30).

  • Paul Lichterman, pp. 138-39 of “Seeing Structure Happen: Theory-Driven Participant Observation,” in Klandermans & Staggenborg (ibid., pp. 118-45).

  • Esp. pp. 311-20 in Katherine Faust, B. Entwisle, R.R. Rindfuss, S.J. Walsh, & Y. Sawangdee, “Spatial Arrangement of Social and Economic Networks Among Villages in Nang Rong District, Thailand,” Social Networks 21(1999): 311-37.