Gephi

focus on data import

Clment Levallois
Gephi Support Team and Assist. Prof. @EMLYON

V 1.2 Sept 2014

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Bio notes
Education in economics, management, history of science (Ph.D.)
Turned to digital methods for research.
data visualization, network analysis, natural language processing, web
applications and more.
Member of the Gephi Community Support team
Gephi certified trainer
https://marketplace.gephi.org/service/data-analysis/

Contact, feedback welcome: on twitter @seinecle or

www.clementlevallois.net

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1. Network already formed

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Network already formed?

Import is direct

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Network data in Excel format

- Via the data laboratory
- Needs at least a list of
edges
- If you dont have a list of
nodes, they will be
created automatically fro
the nodes mentioned in
the edges list - just tick
the option for nodes
creation when prompted
in the edge import
wizzard!

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Frequent mistakes
when importing data in the data lab:
- Take extra caution with the headers (first line) of your files! At least:
- For edges: Source,Target
- For nodes: Id,Label

- Take extra caution with the format of fields!

- Check that your numeric attributes (as opposed to textual) are not
imported as String (which means text), but as numbers indeed
(Float, Double or Integer)

- If you import a list of nodes and edges

- Import the list of nodes first!

- If you import a list of edges only

- Check that the option for the creation of missing nodes is selected

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2. Data not in network format yet

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The general idea

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The steps
YOU START WITH
List / table of
observations
Not many solutions!
1. Extract connected
entities (a network!)
2. Format this network in a
conventional standard
3. Display the network with a
software package / in the
browser

Many solutions

Many solutions

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Gaze: similarity computer

Network connecting
universities, with weak or
strong ties depending on the
similarity in terms of journals
where these univ. publish

Gaze can be downloaded from

www.clementlevallois.net

Available soon as a Gephi plugin (easier to use,

works on Macs) Contact me at
clement.levallois@gephi.org if you need it now.
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Creating a network from cooccurrences data in Excel / CSV

A plugin to install directly from
Gephi (Tools -> Plugins)

Network made of
authors and literary
agents

Network of article
co-authors

See next slides for further instructions on

how to use this plugin

Network formed by co-authors

and the journals where they
publish
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1. Install the Plugin

1. Tools -> Plugin

2. Select Convert Excel and csv files in the tab Available

plugins, then install it and restart Gephi

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2. Select Import Spigot, then Data importer

and follow the wizzard

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Example of a dataset

This Excel file can be converted into a network where:

- Followers are connected to followers
- Followers are connected to persons being followed
- Time periods are taken into account.
Note on proper formats for the Date column:
- Can be an interval of dates, with the start date and end date separated by a comma (like above)
- Can be an interval of years, also separated by a comma (2012,2014)
- Can be a simple date (2012-12-12) or simple year (1979)
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Create a dynamic network

via the data laboratory
Need two attributes for the nodes:

An attribute containing the apparition date for the nodes

Another one for the disappearance date for the nodes

Use the fusion function to create a time interval from these 2 attributes
(see next slide)
Same principle to create dynamic edges.
This approach has severe limits: only the topology of the network is
dynamic, not the attributes (which stay fixed). And the dynamic topology
is very limited a node can just appear and disappearm thats all.
This is a case where a programmatic approach would bring much more
flexibility.

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The function Merge columns

Select the 2 columns which contain the
2. dates of beginning and end (date or simple
number, works as well)

1.

3.

Select Create time interval

Click on this button

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Last step: create time interval

It is possible to leave the

end date empty.

If your temporal data are in

the format of a date, be
cautious to register the
correct format, failing to do
so will crash the creation
and probably need you to
restart Gephi to reinitialize.

Thats all! You can then switch to the Overview, activate the timeline and animate the network
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Next step:
Gephi advanced functions

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