statnet-package {statnet}R Documentation

A Suite of Packages for the Statistical Modeling of Network Data

Description

statnet is a suite of software packages for statistical network analysis. The packages implement recent advances in network modeling based on exponential-family random graph models (ERGM), as well as latent space models and more traditional network methods. The components of the package provide a comprehensive framework for ERGM-based network modeling: tools for model estimation, for model evaluation, for model-based network simulation, and for network visualization. This broad functionality is powered by a central Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. The coding is optimized for speed and robustness.

Details

statnet packages are written in a combination of R and C It is usually used interactively from within the R graphical user interface via a command line. it can also be used in non-interactive (or “batch”) mode to allow longer or multiple tasks to be processed without user interaction. The suite of packages are available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) at http://www.r-project.org/ and also on the statnet project website at http://statnet.org/

The statnet suite of packages has the following components:

In addition, the following packages are available from the author:

statnet is a metapackage, depending on all of the above packages, so that they can be installed together.

Each of these components is described in detail in the references below. Loading the statnet package into R automatically loads them all. Each package has associated help files and internal documentation that is supported by the information on the Statnet Project website (http://statnet.org/). A tutorial, support mailing list, references and links to further resources are provided there.

When publishing results obtained using this package the original authors are to be cited as described in citation("statnet"). In addition, please cite the specific package that you use.

We have invested a lot of time and effort in creating the statnet suite of packages for use by other researchers. lease cite it in all papers where it is used.

Author(s)

Mark S. Handcock handcock@stat.washington.edu,
David R. Hunter dhunter@stat.psu.edu,
Carter T. Butts buttsc@uci.edu,
Steven M. Goodreau goodreau@u.washington.edu,
Pavel N. Krivitsky pavel@cmu.edu, and
Martina Morris morrism@u.washington.edu

Maintainer: Pavel N. Krivitsky krivitsky@stat.psu.edu

References

Admiraal R, Handcock MS (2007). networksis: Simulate bipartite graphs with fixed marginals through sequential importance sampling. Statnet Project, Seattle, WA. Version 1, http://statnet.org.

Bender-deMoll S, Morris M, Moody J (2008). Prototype Packages for Managing and Animating Longitudinal Network Data: dynamicnetwork and rSoNIA. Journal of Statistical Software, 24 (7). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i07/.

Besag, J., 1974, Spatial interaction and the statistical analysis of lattice systems (with discussion), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, B, 36, 192-236.

Butts CT (2006). netperm: Permutation Models for Relational Data. Version 0.2, http://erzuli.ss.uci.edu/R.stuff.

Butts CT (2007). sna: Tools for Social Network Analysis. Version 1.5, http://erzuli.ss.uci.edu/R.stuff.

Butts CT (2008). network: A Package for Managing Relational Data in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 24 (2). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i02/.

Butts CT, with help~from David~Hunter, Handcock MS (2007). network: Classes for Relational Data. Version 1.3, http://erzuli.ss.uci.edu/R.stuff.

Frank, O., and Strauss, D.(1986). Markov graphs. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 81, 832-842.

Goodreau SM, Handcock MS, Hunter DR, Butts CT, Morris M (2008a). A statnet Tutorial. Journal of Statistical Software, 24 (8). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i08/.

Goodreau SM, Kitts J, Morris M (2008b). Birds of a Feather, or Friend of a Friend? Using Exponential Random Graph Models to Investigate Adolescent Social Networks. Demography, 45, in press.

Handcock, M. S. (2003) Assessing Degeneracy in Statistical Models of Social Networks, Working Paper \#39, Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, University of Washington. www.csss.washington.edu/Papers/wp39.pdf

Handcock MS (2003b). degreenet: Models for Skewed Count Distributions Relevant to Networks. Statnet Project, Seattle, WA. Version 1. Project homepage at http://statnet.org, URL: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=degreenet.

Handcock MS, Hunter DR, Butts CT, Goodreau SM, Morris M (2003a). ergm: A Package to Fit, Simulate and Diagnose Exponential-Family Models for Networks. Statnet Project, Seattle, WA. Version 2. Project homepage at http://statnet.org, URL: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ergm.

Handcock MS, Hunter DR, Butts CT, Goodreau SM, Morris M (2003b). statnet: Software tools for the Statistical Modeling of Network Data. Statnet Project, Seattle, WA. Version 2. Project homepage at http://statnet.org, URL: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=statnet.

Hunter, D. R. and Handcock, M. S. (2006) Inference in curved exponential family models for networks, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.

Hunter DR, Handcock MS, Butts CT, Goodreau SM, Morris M (2008b). ergm: A Package to Fit, Simulate and Diagnose Exponential-Family Models for Networks. Journal of Statistical Software, 24(3). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i03/.

Krivitsky PN (2012). Exponential-Family Random Graph Models for Valued Networks. Electronic Journal of Statistics, 2012, 6, 1100-1128. doi:10.1214/12-EJS696

Krivitsky PN, Handcock MS (2008). Fitting Latent Cluster Models for Social Networks with latentnet. Journal of Statistical Software, 24(5). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i05/.

Krivitsky PN, Handcock MS (2007). latentnet: Latent position and cluster models for statistical networks. Seattle, WA. Version 2. Project homepage at http://statnet.org, URL: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=latentnet.

Morris M, Handcock MS, Hunter DR (2008). Specification of Exponential-Family Random Graph Models: Terms and Computational Aspects. Journal of Statistical Software, 24(4). http://www.jstatsoft.org/v24/i04/.

Strauss, D., and Ikeda, M.(1990). Pseudolikelihood estimation for social networks. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 85, 204-212.


[Package statnet version 3.1-0 Index]