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Validity Issues in the Use of Social Network Analysis with Digital Trace Data

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: There is an exciting natural match between social network analysis methods and the growth of data sources produced by social interactions via information technologies, from online communities to corporate information systems. Information Systems researchers have not been slow to embrace this combination of method and data. Such systems increasingly provide “digital trace data” that provide new research opportunities. Yet digital trace data are substantively different from the survey and interview data for which network analysis measures and interpretations were originally developed. This paper examines 10 validity issues associated with the combination of digital trace data and social network analysis methods, with examples from the IS literature, to provide recommendations for improving the validity of future research.

Source: Journal of the Association for Information Systems

DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00282

Authors: James Howison, Andrea Wiggins, Kevin Crowston

Institutions: The University of Texas at Austin, Syracuse University

Language: English

Topic: Complex Network Analysis Techniques

Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Science Foundation

Awards: Effective work practices for Open Source Software development, SGER: Effective work practices for Open Source software development