Monitoring social networks based on transformation into categorical data

Social network analysis (SNA) techniques have recently been developed to monitor and detect abnormal behaviors in social networks. As a useful tool for process monitoring, control charts are also useful for network monitoring. In this paper, the degree and closeness centrality measures, in which each has global and local perspectives, respectively, are applied to an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart and a multinomial cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart for monitoring undirected weighted networks. In general, EWMA charts monitor only one variable in a single chart, whereas multinomial CUSUM charts can monitor a categorical variable, in which several variables are transformed through classification rules, in a single chart. To monitor both degree centrality and closeness centrality simultaneously, we categorize them based on the average of each measure and then apply to the multinomial CUSUM chart. In this case, the global and local attributes of the network can be monitored simultaneously with a single chart. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed procedure through a simulation study.