Network Analysis Workshop

 [Proposal for next NOSOVE course in June 2014, please vote in the poll] 

Rob Christley

Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology

Head of Epidemiology & Public Health

School of Veterinary Science

University of Liverpool,

UK

Provisional Outline

The course will introduce the terminology, methods and some of the software available to analyse networks. The workshop will be a combination of short lectures, discussions and hands-on analysis (half of each day will be spent completing exercises designed to give participants practical experience of network analysis). By the end of the workshop participants will be able to design and undertake studies appropriate for the collection of network data, and use such data to create network images, describe important features of the network and identify important individuals and subgroups within the network. In addition, we will cover aspects of the statistical analysis of network data and the impact of networks on infectious disease dynamics..

Data will be provided for the practical sessions; however, participants will be encouraged to bring their own data to work on during the workshop. In addition, participants are encouraged to discuss their ideas for network analysis with the group.

The course outline below provides the basic course structure and topics to be covered. This may be subject to some modification.

DAY 1

a.m.	Theory	INTRODUCTION Overview of the course What is network analysis? -   What is a network? -   The network paradigm -   History Applications of network analysis -   Veterinary -   Other applications Network topology; types and properties of networks Books, references, and other useful information!
p.m.	Practical	FROM DATA TO ILLUSTRATION Introduction to data sets Introduction to the software Data entry Viewing and editing data Data manipulation Importing attribute data Visualising a network Saving NetDraw files

DAY 2

a.m.	Theory	FROM ILLUSTRATION TO ANALYSIS §   Analysis of individual nodes -    Centrality §   Analysis of a network -    Cohesion §   Analysis of groups and regions -    Components, cohesive sub-groups -    Structural & regular equivalence, blockmodelling
p.m.	Practical	FROM ILLUSTRATION TO ANALYSIS §   Analysis of individual nodes §   Analysis of networks §   Analysis of sub-groups

DAY 3

a.m.	Theory	FURTHER TOPICS IN NETWORK ANALYSIS §   Network data collection §   Networks and disease dynamics §   Discussion session -    Presentation of research ideas or data by the participants (if they choose)
p.m.	Practical	FURTHER TOPICS IN NETWORK ANALYSIS §   Brief overview of other network software §   Statistical analysis of network data §   Continue working on exercises from day 1 and 2 §   Work on your own data

Requirements:

·      Course material with notes, practicals and solutions to the exercises will be provided during the first session of the workshop.

·      Participants will be required to bring their own laptop.

·      Software required: UCINET. A free trial version will be provided for the course.