Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> Texts can be coded and analyzed as networks of concepts often referred to as maps or semantic networks. In such networks, for many texts, there are elements of social structure – the connections among people, organizations, events, and so on. Within organizational and social network theory an approach called the meta-matrix is used to describe social structure in terms of the network of connections among people, organizations, knowledge, resources, tasks and so on. Herein, we propose a combined approach using the meta-matrix model, as an ontology, to lend a second level of organization to the networks of concepts recovered from texts. We have formalized and operationalized this approach in an automated tool for text analysis referred to as AutoMap. We demonstrate how this approach enables not only meaning but also social structure to be revealed through text analysis. We illustrate this approach by showing how it can be used to discover the social structure of covert networks – the terrorist groups operating in the West Bank. <s> BIB001 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> This study examines the disparity between formal plans and actual networks in practice for emergency services in a local government setting. This study found that the accuracy of participants'collective perception of the network has a strong positive relationship with the centrality of the lead agency within each emergency support function. In addition, the centrality of influence within and collective accuracy about the network may be key indicators for creating network effectiveness. Finally, this study offers a simplified network analysis process to assist policy makers in creating more effective network structures for their emergency management activities. <s> BIB002 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> This article advances two general hypotheses, bonding and bridging, to explain the process by which local governments decide whether to enter into contracts. The characteristics of goods and services are important factors in these decisions. In high asset-specificity transactions, the bridging hypothesis predicts local governments will establish ties with only a few “high status” actors, whereas in transactions for services with measurement difficulties, the bonding hypothesis predicts local governments will establish ties with partners of their existing partners to pool resources and reduce commitment risks. The general hypotheses are tested using agreements for law enforcement activities linking 66 actors in the Orlando-Kissimmee metropolitan area during five time periods (i.e., between 1986 and 2003). Using simulation investigation network analysis (SIENA) techniques, this study finds strong statistical support for these hypotheses. <s> BIB003 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> In the face of uprisings and revolutions happening in several countries within short period of time (Arab Spring 2011), the need for fast network assessments is compelling. In this article we present a rapid network assessment approach which uses a vast amount of pre-indexed news data to provide up-to-date overview and orientation in emerging and ongoing incidents. We describe the fully automated process of preparing the data and creating the dynamic meta-networks. We also describe the network analytical measures that we are using to identify important topics, persons, organizations, and locations in these networks. With our rapid network modeling and analysis approach first results can be provided within hours. In the explorative study of this article we use 108,000+ articles from 600+ English written news sources discussing Egypt, Libya, and Sudan within a time period of 18 months to show an application scenario of our approach. In particular we are looking at the involvement of other countries and their politicians during time periods of major incidents. <s> BIB004 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> Online communities form a challenging and still-evolving field for social network research. We highlight two themes that are at the core of social network literature: formative processes and structures, and discuss how these might be relevant in the context of online communities. Processes of tie formation might evolve differently in online communities. Second, we discuss how network structures emerge in different ways than previously studied, and should therefore be interpreted differently. <s> BIB005 </s> Conducting Content Analysis of Documents in Network Research: A Review of Recent Scholarship <s> Challenges of Drawing Network Data from Documents <s> Using a longitudinal case study, we analyzed the centralities and roles of the actors in an urban governance network. The results of our network text analyses and social network analyses of newspap... <s> BIB006
Applying content analysis to drawing net data from documents can be as challenging as using other quantitative approaches, depending the quantity and types of documents that researchers need to analyze. The meaning of network ties may be not accurately captured through the documentation process, which may lead to differences between what the documents suggest and what the network participants actually mean or would interpret. With survey or documents data, researchers still need to carefully address potential cognitive and perceptual biases of third-party interpreters. Furthermore, without systematic coding rules and procedures, the qualitative approach to collecting and analyzing data, including conducting content analysis of documents, may face critiques about its reliability and generalizability  . The following will identify some of the areas that deserve more attention to improve the use of documents and content analysis in network research, based on the analysis of 18 instances of network scholarship in public administration. Document sources. Among the 18 articles included in this study, a few did not specify the types of documents that the authors had used to draw their data, which makes it difficult to examine the validity of using the documents for particular research topics and makes it extremely challenging to replicate the study in other contexts. In addition, the majority of the 18 articles used either government documents or other types of traditional publications, including organizational directories, records, and meeting minutes. Few articles used information from websites, let alone social media data. Yet, many scholars believe that the era of big data presents both "theoretical and methodological opportunities" for network researchers (Groenewegen & Moser, 2014, p. 463) . Social media data can be timely and suitable for social network research, as social media data, by nature, involve relational data. On the other hand, the formation and development of network ties in the online community may differ from their counterparts in offline contexts. This presents new opportunities to test whether existing theories are still valid in explaining the formation and development of online network ties BIB005 . Social media data, however, exist in vast quantities and can be rife with unwanted information. Computer-aided qualitative data analysis software packages (including various software tools such as NVivo, Atlas ti, and QDA), known as CAQDAS, may become necessary for analyzing the large volume of online data. To take advantage of voluminous amounts of text data, including social media data on the Internet, researchers may need to learn new tools such as NodeXL and Python programming language for data-mining purposes. Coding Process. Most of the 18 articles examined in this study did not discuss the coding process they had used in detail. There is insufficient information in these articles about the coding units, coding themes, coding categories, and other coding rules. The authors do not provide enough information about whether they coded the documents by words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole texts; neither do they provide information about whether the researchers established their coding schema before or during coding documents. Moreover, few authors mention whether they conducted coding manually or through some computer software. They do not mention r whether the coding was finished by one author or by collaborative efforts either. Even fewer authors reported any intercoder reliability results. All of these factors may make it difficult for researchers with the same research interests to validate the results or replicate the studies in other contexts. To improve the reliability of the coding process and to strengthen the validity of the study designs, researchers may consider providing more explicit coding rules and procedures for closed-ended content analysis in the text or the appendices. For open-ended coding processes, researchers may provide explicit information about how the open-coding was conducted so that other researchers may better understand the process and replicate the process in similar studies. Furthermore, the availability of a variety of network analysis tools may help researchers reduce labor needed for manual coding. BIB004 applied Rapid Ethnographic Assessment (REA), which originated in anthropology, to social network analysis. REA can be used to "quickly create a socio-cultural profile of a group or region," using "semi-automated computer-based text-mining and machine learning techniques" (Carley, Bigrigg, & Diallo, 2012, p. 330) . Software such as AutoMap can extract network information from unstructured documents through text preprocessing, generating thesauri, formulating linkage rules, and revealing the system structure of texts BIB001 . For instance, BIB006 used AutoMap to analyze 354 newspaper articles published between 1990 and 2009 to examine the key policy players in an urban governance network. Network data extracted using AutoMap can also be analyzed by other network analysis tools such as Organization Risk Analyzer (ORA) and UCINET. Quality of the network data. Content analysis of the documents in the 18 articles produced relational data, most of which focused on the existence of interorganizational collaboration ties or affiliation ties. In seven out of the 18 articles the researchers collected longitudinal network data. A few researchers delved into the network ties and provided more information about the meaning or content of the network ties. For instance, BIB003 examined the formation of collaboration ties to provide 14 kinds of public services related to public safety. And the format of collaboration ties is not limited to formal contractual ties. This level of detail on the intergovernmental collaboration provides useful contextual information for the network analysis. This type of data would be difficult to collect using quantitative methods such as a survey design. Document data have more potential to be explored to enrich the conversation about the content and quality of network ties. More diverse types of network data such as semantic network data (a network of concepts) and metanetworks data can be extracted from documents BIB001 van Atteveldt, 2012) . Furthermore, with the advancement of computer software, archival data could be better utilized for collecting panel network data. In addition, in eight studies the researchers used mixed-methods designs to collect network data, as shown in Table 3 . Most of the eight articles used other methods such as surveys or interviews to collect different kinds of data and to complement the network data drawn from documents. Only two articles actually used the interview data or survey data to cross-validate or compare with the network data from documents (e.g., Akkerma et al., 2011; BIB002 . To take advantage of a mixed-methods design, researchers need to better integrate content analysis with other methods.