[Rsiena-help] Rsiena-help Longitudinal network data based on multiple networks with changing actor composition

Fri Mar 2 20:14:57 CET 2012

Dear Mathias,

RSiena can read multi wave files but not deal with multi wave R objects. 
The format for the multi wave files is

from to value wave

where the from and to are sequential numbers. The waves can be any 
numbers, as long as they are in the correct order: RSiena will relabel 
them 1:nwaves. And use sienaDataCreateFromSession to read the files in.

Within R it is easy to split data frames by a factor such as wave, using 
split(). But you end up with a list which you must then process.
If you are not familiar with R my advice would be to do your data 
manipulation outside R.

Regards,

Ruth

On 01/03/2012 15:57, Mathias De Roeck wrote:
>
> Dear Professor Snijders
>
> Thanks for the reply. I will follow your proposal and place other
> questions regarding the use of RSiena on the website you mentioned. At
> the same time, I would be glad to know any remarks from Ruth on the
> splitting of the data in different waves.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Mathias
>
>
>  > Today's Topics:
>>
>> 1. Re: Longitudinal network data based on multiple networks with
>> changing actor composition (Tom Snijders)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 09:33:14 +0000
>> From: Tom Snijders <Tom.Snijders at nuffield.ox.ac.uk>
>> To: Mathias De Roeck <Mathias.DeRoeck at UGent.be>,
>> "rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at"
>> <rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at>
>> Subject: Re: [Rsiena-help] Longitudinal network data based on multiple
>> networks with changing actor composition
>> Message-ID:
>> <56E87F0F0FACC14DBFA30EFC82400726029D5F16833F at nuff-shetland.nuff.ox.ac.uk>
>>
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>
>> Dear Mathias,
>>
>> This type of question is more appropriate for the yahoo discussion
>> list http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/stocnet/ than for the current
>> list, which is meant for issues concerned with programming the RSiena
>> package (as opposed to using the package).
>>
>> But let me have a go at answering you, with the suggestion that if
>> problems remain, you put the next post at the other discussion list.
>>
>> In the first place, take care that your network ties are states, not
>> events, so that the Markov assumption is reasonable, that
>> probabilities of network change depend on the current state of the
>> network.
>>
>> For the changing composition, read Section 4.8 of the manual
>> http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~snijders/siena/RSiena_Manual.pdf
>> (but I think you already did this).
>> The countries must be identified by numbers 1 to n, where n is the
>> total number of countries that are ever present in the data. The
>> composition change (i.e., exogenous events) file must have n rows, one
>> for each country. There is no possibility for using country names.
>>
>> Whether there is a way to read in the data without splitting them into
>> waves is not totally clear to me. I shall ask Ruth about the
>> possibility of using the Siena format in sienaDataCreateFromSession
>> for this purpose.
>>
>> Note the example R scripts at the Siena website, e.g., for specifying
>> models with multiple dependent networks. You mention that you have 7
>> networks. Usually, it is advisable to start working with one network
>> to get an overall impression of the data set and how it can be
>> modelled, before continuing with a multivariate longitudinal analysis.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Tom
>>
>> ================================================================
>> Tom A.B. Snijders
>> Professor of Statistics in the Social Sciences
>> Department of Politics and Department of Statistics
>> Nuffield College
>> University of Oxford
>> tel. +44-01865-278599
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: rsiena-help-bounces at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at
>> [mailto:rsiena-help-bounces at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at] On Behalf Of
>> Mathias De Roeck
>> Sent: 28 February 2012 08:42
>> To: rsiena-help at r-forge.wu-wien.ac.at
>> Subject: [Rsiena-help] Longitudinal network data based on multiple
>> networks with changing actor composition
>>
>>
>> Dear all
>>
>> At the moment I'm learning to work with RSiena, but given the nature
>> of my data I experience problems.
>>
>> I have longitudinal network data (from 1965 to 2005, so 41 waves)
>> about political, economic and military relations between countries (a
>> total of 7 networks). Currently, the data is in edgelist format like
>> for example:
>>
>> Year CountrySender CountryReceiver Relation
>> 1965 AFG USA 1
>>
>> When there is no relation between two countries, there is no
>> information in the datafiles (that means it is not coded as 0 or
>> missing, but simply not present in the datasets). The world system is
>> a network with changing actors, since countries are entering and
>> leaving the system. Now I have some questions:
>>
>> 1. After checking the RSiena manual, it seems that I need to make an
>> exogenous events file. Is it possible to name the actors in this file,
>> so that I now that Afghanistan is Afghanistan and the US is the US?
>> 2. Does the exogenous events file imply that I will incept the
>> datasets within this broader dataframe?
>> 3. Is there a way to directly read in the data, without splitting them
>> up in different waves?
>>
>> These are my questions. I would really appreciate any comments and
>> suggestions.
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>> Mathias De Roeck
>> Junior Researcher
>> Center for Social Theory
>> Ghent University
>>
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>> End of Rsiena-help Digest, Vol 22, Issue 1
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