Graph Algorithms for Data Science

5 Introduction to social network analysis

This chapter covers

• Presenting random and scale-free network degree distribution
• Using metrics to characterize a network
• Introducing the Neo4j Graph Data Science library
• Using native projection to project an in-memory graph
• Inspecting the community structure of a graph
• Finding influencers in the network with PageRank

Social network analysis is a process of investigating network structures and node roles using graph theory and algorithms. One of the earliest network science writers was Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy. One of his most important works is a short story, “Láncszemek,” in which he describes that even though we think the world is vast, it is, in fact, very tiny. The story was originally ...