SciTS 2010 Conference: Sessions

Workshop on Basic Methods of Social Network Analysis for Team Science

Social Network Analysis is the body of techniques developed to analyze social networks. Social networks consist of a set of actors (individuals – researchers – or groups – research centers and institutions) and a set of ties (links, edges, or arcs) that connect pairs of actors. Basic questions in social network analysis include properties of the total network for example; Is it connected? Are there clusters or communities? Is the location of ties related to attributes of actors? How cohesive is the population of actors? The positions of actors in that total network (Are some actors more central? Are some actors more important to overall connectedness? Are positions of actors related to their attributes?). If there are multiple networks or the same network over time, additional questions arise. The workshop is designed to introduce team science researchers to basic concepts of social network analysis and orient participants to the available software packages for SNA. Special attention will be given to methods that are most relevant to the research concerns of participants culled from the literature on team science and the abstracts to be presented at the conference.

• John Skovetz, Ph.D., University of South Florida, Professor Emeritus, Sociology

Panelists

John Skvoretz

John Skvoretz, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida, former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at USF, and Carolina Distinguished Professor Emeritus from the University of South Carolina. He earned a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Sociology from Lehigh University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and he was an NSF Graduate Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology. He has been a member of the prestigious (invitation only) Sociological Research Association since 1995.

Professor Skvoretz is a mathematical sociologist whose contributions are characterized by the innovative use of mathematics to formulate theory and analyze data. He has published many research articles, edited books, and book chapters and several computer programs used in exchange network research and analysis. He has contributed to several areas in sociology but the current area of greatest activity is social network analysis. Current research uses exponential random graph models and biased net models to address the question of where ties are located in networks as functions of the other ties that surround them and the attributes of the individuals (either persons or groups) who are linked by the connections.