
Network analysis is a structural approach that focuses in part on patterns of linkages between actors.More specifically, the network paradigm has four important features:

In its background and broad sense, network analysis is a field that mostly concerns itself with relational data and research questions. Further, a network can be four different things: a conceptual model, a description of an existing real-world structure or system, a mathematical model, or a simulation. Typically, a network consists of actors that represent individuals, organizations, programs, or other entities. Important contributions were made from an extremely wide variety of fields, including sociology, psychology, political science, anthropology, communication, business, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and physics.

Network analysis is a research approach that is suited to describing, exploring, and understanding various types of structural and relational aspects.

Different approaches to network analysis.
