Doing Social Network Research: Network-based Research Design for Social Scientists

by Garry L. Robins

Are you struggling to design your social network research? Are you looking for a book that covers more than social network analysis? If so, this is the book for you! With straight-forward guidance on research design and data collection, as well as social network analysis, this book takes you start to finish through the whole process of doing network research. Open the book and you'll find practical, 'how to' advice and worked examples relevant to PhD students and researchers from across the social and behavioural sciences. The book covers: Fundamental network concepts and theories Research questions and study design Social systems and data structures Network observation and measurement Methods for data collection Ethical issues for social network research Network visualization Methods for social network analysis Drawing conclusions from social network results This is a perfect guide for all students and researchers looking to do empirical social network research.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2015

About the author

Garry Robins is Professor in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He has won research awards from the Psychometric Society and the American Psychological Association, and is a past winner of the Freeman Award for the scientific study of social structure. He is co-editor of the journal Network Science, a member of the Board of the International Network for Social Network Analysis, and former editor of the Journal of Social Structure. His research has been centred on the development of exponential random graph models for social networks, as well as a wide range of empirical and applied social network studies from cattle herding to criminal networks, from drug-sharing to environmental management, from little data to Big Data.

Reviews

[Janid · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provides a summary of typical hypotheses and the theories backing them, that social network analysis research can help you answer to and the challenges the researcher might face. It also provides a brief collection of relevant methodologies with critical comments on their advantages and drawbacks.

I have read it only once! and I am not sure if I found in it what I was looking for. I will update my review once I read it again.

However, the book is short(only 200-300 pages), easy to read, and could be finished reading in one day or three.

It is like the city map that you use when you visit a new city and you don't want to get lost, but you want to have a feeling of where you are and where you should go.

[elge]

read most of it for work. this was actually useful and contained enlightening tips, although I think that it will be insufficient on its own for my project. eh, I wish reading the book would get the dissertation done

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are thinking about doing a social network research, it is THE book to read before you make your first steps. It explains when such research is appropriate, briefly covers all topics - from design to data collection to analysis to ethics - as on overview, warns about the dos and don'ts. The author provides a treasure chest of examples and references to other works on how to actually do the research, making it an excellent starting point. The book is also very well structured and friendly.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

C:2 U:3 P:2 A:3.5