Progress, problems and prospects for network research: Investigating relationships in the age of electronic communication technologies

Abstract Here we look at the past accomplishments, present difficulties, and future potentials of network research, stressing the unique advantages of investigating the new interactive technologies. A positive assessment of the past scientific accomplishments of network research is tempered by serious epistemological problems: inadequate attention to network theory, network sampling problems that restrict the generalizability of results, an underemphasis upon data-gathering and measurement, and an analytical shortchanging of the message content that flows through links over time. Partial solutions to certain of these difficulties may be found in network research on the new interactive communication systems.

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