Language Networks: a Practical Approach

TL;DR

This paper offers a practical introduction to modeling texts as networks, guiding researchers through preprocessing, network representation, and analysis techniques for text data.

Contribution

It provides a hands-on tutorial for applying network science methods to text analysis, targeting researchers without prior experience.

Findings

Guidance on text preprocessing and network modeling

Examples of network-based text feature extraction

Overview of tasks combining network science and text analysis

Abstract

This manuscript provides a short and practical introduction to the topic of language networks. This text aims at assisting researchers with no practical experience in text and/or network analysis. We provide a practical tutorial on how to model and characterize texts using network-based features. In this tutorial, we also include examples of pre-processing and network representations. A brief description of the main tasks allying network science and text analysis is also provided. A further development of this text shall include a practical description of network classification via machine learning methods.