ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

Tutorial #5 Characterizing Structure

We will be using several datasets for this tutorial. The primary dataset used is campnet. The
campnet data was collected from 18 participants in an NSF-sponsored summer workshop on
research methods. At the end of the workshop, the 18 participants were asked to name the three
individuals with whom they spent the most time. The second dataset used is campattr. This is a
set of node attributes for the 18 individuals in the campnet network. The attributes include
gender (1 = female, 2 = male), role (1 = student, 2 = instructor), and betweenness centrality
score. The third dataset used is kaptail. The kaptail dataset was collected in Zambia by the
anthropologist Bruce Kapferer. The networks in this dataset represent the interactions among 39
employees of a tailor shop. Specifically, we will look at the KAPFTS1 network, which represents
friendship ties among the employees.
Lets begin by familiarizing ourselves with the campnet data by displaying it in UCINET (the
D on the toolbar) and in Netdraw. Please refer to tutorial #4 if you are having trouble
remembering how to display data in UCINET and in Netdraw. Your results should look like this:

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

Lets now calculate the density of this network. To do this, go to Network | Cohesion | Density |
(new) Density Overall. Select campnet as the input dataset, leave the other options as they are,
and click OK. You should get a simple output file that contains data on the overall density of the
network as well as the total number of ties in the network.

We see that there are 54 ties in the campnet network. Because there are 18 nodes in the network,
there are 306 ties possible (this number is derived by calculating n(n-1)). The density reported in
the table above reflects the fact that there are 54 out of a possible 306 ties present in the network.
UCINET will also allow us to partition a network by a chosen attribute and then calculate the
densities within and between the groups that are created by the partition. For example, lets
assume that we would like to partition the campnet network by gender so as to examine the tie
density within and between the males and females of this network. We could do this with the
Density by Groups function in UCINET.
Go to Network | Cohesion | Density | Density by Groups and select campnet as the input dataset.
Recall that the campattr data contains attribute data for the nodes in the campnet network. This
attribute data includes gender. Thus, select campattr as the dataset for both the row and the
column partition. Make sure that the options for these partitions are both set to column and
Gender. Lastly, select Sum (frequencies) under the Method section.

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

Click OK. You should get output about the individuals in each partition as well as the number of
ties within and between each group. Data on standard deviations is also provided.

Thus, we see from this output that there are 20 ties among women and 25 ties among men.
Moreover, there are 4 outgoing ties from men to women, and there are 5 outgoing ties from
women to men.

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

*Note that we could have obtained data about the proportions of ties within and between the
groups by choosing Average instead of Sum under the Density by Groups Method section.

We can also calculate the geodesic distance between each pair of nodes in a network. Geodesic
distance represents the shortest path (i.e., the fewest number of edges) between any two nodes.
To calculate geodesic distance, go to Network | Cohesion | Distance and select campnet as the
input dataset. Leave all of the remaining options on the default selection as seen below.

Click OK. In the resulting output you should see that the average distance between nodes in this
network is 2.87 steps. Additionally, data about compactness and breadth is provided. The
remaining output should look like this:

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

The output also includes the frequency with which each distance occurs in the network. For
example, there are 49 occurrences of a distance of 2 and 8 occurrences of the distance 7.
Also note that there is missing data in the matrix above for individuals who are unreachable by
others in a graph theoretical sense. For example, Bill and John have no incoming ties in the
campnet network, making them technically unreachable.
Finally, lets run a core/periphery analysis on the campnet data. A core/periphery analysis
simultaneously fits a core/periphery model to the data network and estimates the degree of
coreness or closeness to the core of each actor. To do this, go to Network | Core/Periphery and
choose continuous in order to get a continuous measure of each nodes coreness (as opposed to
the categorical partitioning that you get by choosing the categorical method). Select campnet as
the input dataset and leave the remaining options on their default settings. Click OK. The
resulting output should look like this:

Thus, we see that there is no variation among nodes in terms of their coreness. This is likely
due to the fact that this dataset was created by asking each individual to name three others with
whom they spent the most time. The resulting network is quite decentralized, with no clear core
or periphery. The fact that this network doesnt fit a core/periphery structure is reflected in the
later output on the composite gini-based core/peripheriness, which is 0.00. This indicates that
this network doesnt reflect a core/periphery pattern.
Lets examine the core/peripheriness of another network to see if we can get a different result.
For this we will analyze the first network (KAPFTS1) in the kaptail dataset. Begin by visualizing
the kaptail data in Netdraw. You should find that the first network looks like this:
5

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

Lets see if this network exhibits more of a core/periphery pattern by conducting a continuous
core/periphery analysis as we did with the campnet data above. Go to Network | Core/Periphery
and choose continuous. Select kaptail as the input dataset. By default, the analysis will be
conducted on the first matrix in the dataset, which is KAPFTS1. Click OK. You should get
output that looks like this:

ISSH 2011 - SNA Track

In contrast to the campnet network, there is much more heterogeneity among the nodes in this
network. If we compare these scores to the Netdraw representation of the network, we can see
that Chisokone, who is near the center of the diagram and has many incoming ties, has the
highest coreness score. Compare this to Zakeyo, who is only connected to the network by one
tie. His coreness score is appropriately low.
If you scroll down further in the output, you will also see that this network has a higher
composite score, indicating that it more closely conforms to a core/periphery structure than does
the campnet network.
Lastly conduct a categorical core/periphery analysis of the kaptail dataset. Go to Network |
Core/Periphery and then choose categorical instead of continuous. Enter kaptail as the input
dataset and click OK.
You should see in the output that this method separates the nodes in the network into two groups,
those in the core and those on the periphery. For example, you should see that the following
individuals are in the first category (i.e., the core): NKUMBULA, ABRAHAM, SEAMS,
DONALD, LYASHI, ZULU, HASTINGS, CHISOKONE, and MUKUBWA. Moreover, the
output also displays a partitioned matrix that shows the ties within and between these two
groups. Just as in the Density by Groups analysis, we also see a table that reports the density of
ties within and between the core and periphery groups. As expected, the density within the core
group is very high and the density among those on the periphery is relatively low.

End of Tutorial #5