Constructing, conducting and interpreting animal social network analysis.

ABSTRACT: 1. Animal social networks are descriptions of social structure which, aside from their intrinsic interest for understanding sociality, can have significant bearing across many fields of biology. 2. Network analysis provides a flexible toolbox for testing a broad range of hypotheses, and for describing the social system of species or populations in a quantitative and comparable manner. However, it requires careful consideration of underlying assumptions, in particular differentiating real from observed networks and controlling for inherent biases that are common in social data. 3. We provide a practical guide for using this framework to analyse animal social systems and test hypotheses. First, we discuss key considerations when defining nodes and edges, and when designing methods for collec

SUBMITTER: Farine DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4973823 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature