A Broad Introduction to Network Science
Network science is the field dedicated to the investigation of complex systems by representing them as networks. We model such networks as graphs: sets of nodes connected by edges. This deceptively simple object is the starting point of never-ending complexity, as it can represent almost every facet of reality.
This book aims at providing an introductory access to the large and interdisciplinary analytic toolbox necessary to master network science: graph and probability theory, linear algebra, statistical physics, machine learning, combinatorics, ... In this second edition, you will learn more about how to deal with uncertain network data and about graph neural networks. This is an "Atlas", because it will not make you a specialist in using any of these techniques. After reading this book, you will have a general understanding about the existence of all these approaches.
The book is available for free download as a PDF using the links below or on the top bar. The website contains the exercises from each chapter of the book and their solutions. My aim is to also transform most figures from the book into interactive visualizations. By manipulating the figures you can bring about a deeper understanding of each concept.
Download | Exercise | Interact
Support
The first edition of the book is available only as a free electronic PDF and (soon) as a print-on-demand. I am planning to expand it in a third edition and to create interactive visualizations. If you're interested in these efforts, consider supporting my work via Patreon, or buying a physical copy of the book.
Thanks to
The work on this book has been supported as a part of my professional activity as a postdoc at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, and as associate professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. It also relies on the expertise of many peer reviewers who donated their time to catch all my mistakes and omissions. The chief peer reviewer was Aaron Clauset. Special thanks go to Andres Gomez-Lievano. The other peer reviewers are, in alphabetical order: Alexey Medvedev, Andrea Tagarelli, Charlie Brummitt, Ciro Cattuto, Clara Vandeweerdt, Fred Morstatter, Giulio Rossetti, Gourab Ghoshal, Isabel Meirelles, Laura Alessandretti, Luca Rossi, Mariano Beguerisse, Marta Sales-Pardo, Matte Hartog, Petter Holme, Renaud Lambiotte, Roberta Sinatra, Yong-Yeol Ahn, and Yu-Ru Lin.
For the second edition of the book, I also received help and comments from: Giovanni Puccetti, Matteo Magnani, Maria Astefanoaei, Daniele Cassese, and Paul Scherer.
Their support goes to charities: TechWomen, Evidence Action, and Doctors Without Borders. You should consider donating to them.
