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6 - Network Visualization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

Tom Brughmans
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
Matthew A. Peeples
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
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Summary

When many people (network researchers included) think about networks, the first thing that pops into their head is the classic network node-link diagram. In its simplest form a network graph is just a collection of points on a page representing entities of some sort with lines drawn to indicate the connections among those entities. Network visuals can be small and include only a few actors and relations where structural patterns and positions can be clearly observed. They can also be dizzyingly complex bundles of thousands, tens of thousands, or more entities and connections where general textures of relations and topological features might be visible but the positions of most nodes and edges are obscured by complexity. In either case, such visuals can paint a fascinating picture of a dataset and help a researcher recognize, interpret, and explain patterns in all manner of relational data that would otherwise be difficult to identify or communicate even with the myriad of network metrics available.

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