Social network analysis: A methodological introduction

Social network analysis is a large and growing body of research on the measurement and analysis of relational structure. Here, we review the fundamental concepts of network analysis, as well as a range of methods currently used in the field. Issues pertaining to data collection, analysis of single networks, network comparison, and analysis of individual-level covariates are discussed, and a number of suggestions are made for avoiding common pitfalls in the application of network methods to substantive questions.