Network cards: concise, readable summaries of network data

Abstract The deluge of network datasets demands a standard way to effectively and succinctly summarize network datasets. Building on similar efforts to standardize the documentation of models and datasets in machine learning, here we propose network cards, short summaries of network datasets that ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: James Bagrow, Yong-Yeol Ahn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2022-12-01
Series:Applied Network Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-022-00514-7
Description
Summary:Abstract The deluge of network datasets demands a standard way to effectively and succinctly summarize network datasets. Building on similar efforts to standardize the documentation of models and datasets in machine learning, here we propose network cards, short summaries of network datasets that can capture not only the basic statistics of the network but also information about the data construction process, provenance, ethical considerations, and other metadata. In this paper, we lay out (1) the rationales and objectives for network cards, (2) key elements that should be included in network cards, and (3) example network cards to underscore their benefits across a variety of research domains. We also provide a schema, templates, and a software package for generating network cards.
ISSN:2364-8228