User-defined terms used in Exponential Family Random Graph Models
This package contains template code for user defined (change) statistics that can be used with the statnet suite of packages (and ergm in particular). To use this package the statnet packages ergm and network are required.
As background,
statnet is a suite of software packages for statistical network analysis.
The packages implement recent advances in network modeling based on
exponential-family random graph models (ERGM). The components of the package
provide a comprehensive framework for ERGM-based network modeling: tools for
model estimation, for model evaluation, for model-based network simulation, and
for network visualization. This broad functionality is powered by a central
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. The coding is optimized for speed
and robustness.
For detailed information on how to download and install the software,
go to the ergm website:
statnet.org.
A tutorial, support newsgroup, references and links to further
resources are provided there.
When publishing results obtained using this package the original authors are to be cited as:
Mark S. Handcock, David R. Hunter, Carter T. Butts, Steven M. Goodreau,
and Martina Morris. 2003
statnet: Software tools for the Statistical Modeling of Network Data
statnet.org.
We have invested a lot of time and effort in creating the
statnet suite of packages for use by other researchers.
Please cite it in all papers where it is used.
For complete citation information, usecitation(package="statnet").
The statnet suite of packages allows the
user to explore a large number of potential models
for their network data. These can be seen by typing
help("ergm-terms",package="ergm") (once the package
ergm has been installed). For more information on
the models and terms see Morris, Handcock, and Hunter (2008).
The purpose of the package is to allow additional terms can be coded up by users (you!) and be used at native speeds with statnet. So the suite of packages can be extended with minimal work by the user. In addition the core packages are not altered and so the new packages benefit from improvements to the core suite.
The process of creating new terms is explained in depth by the document entitled by Hunter, Goodreau, and Handcock (2010) that is found in the inst/doc directory of this package.
In brief, to add a new term you need to (all file references are relative to the package directory).:
1. Download the source version of this package. For example, in R use
download.packages("ergm.userterms", destdir=".", type="source")
where destdir is the directory to save the source
(e.g., ergm.userterms_3.0.tar.gz) in.
2. Unpack the source into a directory
(e.g., on Linux or the Mac
tar -vzxf ergm.userterms_3.0.tar.gz).
3. Optionally, rename the package name from
ergm.userterms to some something
more evocative of its use (e.g., myergm).
This can be done using a global change to the files in the
directory. Optionally, edit the DESCRIPTION file to reflect the
use of the package.
4. Edit R/InitErgmTerm.users.R to add
R InitErgmTerm functions for the new terms.
5. Edit src/changestats.users.c to add C
functions (like the example already in that file) to compute the
new change statistics.
6. Compile the package using the usual R
tools (e.g., R CMD build myergm and
R CMD INSTALL myergm).
7. Run it! It depends on ergm and network, of course. See the example below.
Hunter DR, Goodreau SM, Handcock MS (2013). ergm.userterms: A Template Package for Extending statnet, Journal of Statistical Software 52(2), 1-25, URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v52/i02/.
statnet, network, ergm, ergm-terms
data(faux.mesa.high) summary(faux.mesa.high~mindegree(2)) fit <- ergm(faux.mesa.high~mindegree(2), estimate="MPLE") summary(fit)
Please choose more modern alternatives, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.