Exploring Animal Social Networks (ebook)

Argumento de Exploring Animal Social Networks (ebook)

"The book is a useful 'handbook' providing detailed, stepwise procedures sufficient to allow the reader to address a broad range of questions about social interactions. . . . The book includes numerous examples of the kind of research questions one might ask, and, thus, it allows the reader to find the analysis that best fits the data set to be analyzed. Thus, even readers with minimal prior knowledge of social network analysis will be able to apply this approach. And if further assistance is needed, the authors provide numerous references to specific procedures that have been used by others."--Thomas R. Zentall, PsycCRITIQUES

"I love this book. . . . [T]he authors have produced a volume that is well written and informative, but mostly I love it because Exploring Animal Social Networks is really useful. . . . I suspect that this book will change the life history of network analysis application in animal behaviour, shortening the juvenile period and ushering us more quickly into adulthood."--Richard Connor, Animal Behavior

"[T]his volume provides an engaging, accessible, and timely introduction to the use of network theory methods for examining the social behavior of animals."--Noa Pinter-Wollman, Quarterly Review of Biology

"Exploring Animal Social Networks shows behavioral biologists how to apply social network theory to animal populations. In doing so, Croft, James, and Krause illustrate the connections between an animal's individual behaviors and how these, in turn, influence and are influenced by behavior at the population level. . . . Valuable for readers interested in using quantitative analyses to study animal social behaviors."--Choice

"An important and timely addition to the literature. This book should be readily accessible to researchers who are interested in animal social organization but who have little or no experience in conducting network analysis. The book is well-written in an engaging style and contains a good number of examples drawn from a range of taxonomic groups."--Paul R. Moorcroft, Harvard University

"This book introduces ecologists, behaviorists, and others studying social behavior to the methods of network analysis. It is clearly written and accessible to readers whose primary training is in biology, not physics, mathematics, or sociology--the fields in which network techniques have largely been developed. The book is method oriented, so that it can serve as a practical guide to how readers can analyze their own data."--Stephen C. Pratt, Arizona State University

"No such book of this kind exists, and because it fills a new niche it will be important. New graphical and analytical techniques are emerging that provide insights into how networks form and function. This book is designed as a primer to introduce students, especially graduate students, to these techniques by using and interpreting examples from animal interactions. For anyone interested in networks, this book will be a useful guide."--Daniel I. Rubenstein, Princeton University

"The behavioural scientist interested in the wider picture of how their work fits into the world of networks is recommended this book as a first port of call for classic citations."--Sean A. Rands, Applied Animal Behaviour Science0Preface vii
Chapter 1: Introduction to Social Networks 1
Chapter 2: Data Collection 19
Chapter 3: Visual Exploration 42
Chapter 4: Node-Based Measures 64
Chapter 5: Statistical Tests of Node-Based Measures 88
Chapter 6: Searching for Substructures 117
Chapter 7: Comparing Networks 141
Chapter 8: Conclusions 163
Glossary of Frequently Used Terms 173
References 175
Index 187