Social Network Analysis

UCINET
UCINET--Introduction
UCINETUCINET is produced by Analytic
Technologies. It offers a very user-friendly,
reasonably priced software system for
network analysis.

Throughout this discussion, well use the
example of the cosponsorship network of the
58 legislators in the lower house of the
Arizona legislature, 2001.

Starting UCINET
When you first open UCINET, set the default
directory to a directory of your choice, by typing in
the directory name (into the space at the bottom
edge of the UCINET window). Note that the original
default directory is just the c:\ drive.

Note that UCINET produces many types of files
and deleting any (before you are entirely done with
your analysis) may make it difficult to use some of
the others.
How to Read Data into UCINET
There are several ways to read network data into UCINET.
Ill review two basic methodsusing matrices, and using dl
language.

UCINET can read in a matrix dataeither saved in a text
file, or saved in excel.

So, in the case of the Arizona cosponsorship data that we
will use as an example, there are 58 legislators and
therefore 58 X 58 = 3,364 dyads.

How to Read Data into UCINET
If those data are saved in a text file (with 58 rows,
and 58 cosponsorship frequencies listed on each of
those rows), they can be read in as raw data into
UCINET.

Arizona.txt is an example of such a file.

Download this file. Then, in UCINET, click on Data
and Import and Raw. The text box should allow
you to search for the file youve downloaded, and to
read it into UCINET.
How to Read Data into UCINET
One way to double check that it is correct is to look at the
number of rows and columns that are automatically filled into
that dialogue box: it should be 58.

After youve read in the data, an output screen will show you
the data in matrix form.

You can also see the data in matrix form by going to Data,
clicking on Spreadsheets, then clicking on Matrix. This will
open up an emptry spreadsheet window. Click File and then
Open (or, control-O) to open the file. The file is in the default
directory (as specified in the lower row of the UCINET
program), and it is called Arizona.##h.

How to Read Data into UCINET
An alternative is to read data in using a standard
excel file. An example of such an excel file can be
found here.

In UCINET, go to Data, then Import, then Excel
matrix. Be sure to tell UCINET whether the matrix
includes row / column labels.

(The UCINET program will immediately remind you
of the name of the programjust as a safety double-
check. Just click ok.)
How to Read Data into UCINET
Often, the easiest way to read data into UCINET is to
use DL language. A document with a set of
examples of DL programming can be found here.

When you use DL language, the default value of the
edge between each possible pair of nodes is
automatically set to 0 (that is, no connection).

The DL language is then used to specify the value of
all edges. Labels for the rows and columns of the
matrix can also be specified through DL language.
How to Read Data into UCINET
Some researchers find excel files easier to work
withsome find DL language easier. In the Arizona
case, the SAS program that I used actually creates a
matrix file that is relatively easy to transfer into DL
language.

DL language can also be useful if you need to read
in additional matrices. In the cosponsorship
example, I have an additional matrix file that lists the
number of shared committees on which each pair
of legislators serve.
Other Types of Data
Network files can be thought of in terms of
matrices (whether or not they are actually
read in as matrices (versus DL language)).

A second type of file is an attribute file,
which lists attributes for each node. So, I
have a set of attributes for each legislator,
including race, sex, partisanship, seniority,
etc.
Reading in Attribute Files
Reading in attribute files to UCINET is a bit
unwieldy. Well use two examples from the
Arizona legislative datasetparty (srepub,
coded 1 if Republican, 0 otherwise) and
ideology (measured by swnom01, a w-
nominate score).

Download the two excel files: srepub and
swnom01.


Reading in Attribute Files
Notice that the files are in matrix formthere are 58 legislators in this
network, so each of these two files has 58 rows and 58 columns. It is
really only the first column that mattersthe other columns are just
filler columns (as UCINET works only with matrix files.)

Read the two files into UCINET, as you did with the cosponsorship file
previously. In this case, however, choose node attribute file
rather than network adjacency matrix.

At that point, you should have srepub.##h (and the companion file
srepub.##d) as well as swnom01.##h (and the companion file
swnom01.##d).
Reading in Attribute Files
In order to create an attribute measure, go to Data,
then click on Attribute. Browse to find the
srepub.##h that you imported into UCINET (after
downloading the parallel excel file).

The attribute information for Republican is in the first
column (recall what the excel file looked likethe
first column was 0/1 (0=Dem, 1=Repub), and the
other 57 columns were 99 to just fill out the matrix.
Reading in Attribute Files
So, for Vector is Row or Column?, choose column.
For Which Row/Col, choose 1.

Now, you need to specify how you want the attribute
to be constructed. In this case, it makes sense to
create an attribute that stands for exact matches
two legislators who have the same code will be of
the same party (either both Republican or both
Democrat).
Reading in Attribute Files
So, under Method, select Exact Matches

And the output data set defaults to srepub-
Column-1. It may be useful to rename it to
something that makes more intuitive sense,
such as sameparty
Reading in Attribute Files
Next, lets look at ideology as an attribute
(swnom01).

As before, enter in the name of the file (browse to
find wherever you saved the ideology file that you
imported into UCINET, after downloading the
relevant excel file from the web.) And, enter in
Column and 1 to specify that the attribute info can
be found in the first column of data in the file.
Reading in Attribute Files
However, it no longer makes sense to
choose exact matches, since legislators will
rarely be exactly the same ideologywhat
matters is how close they are in ideology.
So, in Method, choose absolute
differencewhich will represent similarity
between two legislators ideologies.

Reading in Attribute Files
And, it may make sense to name the output
file something that makes intuitive sense,
such as diffideol.

Okay, now what can we do with UCINET?
UCINET
As noted in previous discussions, UCINET
has a terrific tutorial. You can use the
Arizona data to practice reading in files, and
calculating out commonly used descriptives
for networks and nodes (such as the various
centrality measures that weve discussed.)

QAP Procedure
UCINET also allows the possibility of a
regression analysis, using a QAP procedure.

The QAP Procedure will be the focus of our
next discussion.