2 - Network Metrics

Summary

A valuable feature of networks is their ability to quantify structural relationships. Much like a chemist who, having purified their sample, can bring to bear a wide range of tools for understanding their sample by transforming data into a network, a network scientist can leverage a range of tools that provide precise measurements of their data’s structure. This includes node-level measures like degree and centrality, meso-scale measures like community formation, and macro-scale measures like density and modularity. This chapter introduces these measures and gives a brief guide to their use.