Social Network Analysis Visualization Tools: A Comparative Review

Abstract

Social network analysis helps analysts to study the relationships among different nodes of a network and get valuable insights. The common output of social networks analysis is measuring the node's centrality and graphical visualization, which helps us to understand the degree and nature of relationships between different nodes of the network. Online Social networks produce data that provides tons of knowledge. But it is challenging to extract the data and get useful information through its analysis and visualization. Getting insights from small-scale networks is comparatively easy since they can be manually constructed and graphically represented. But it gets very time-consuming and hectic process as the network expands. Several social network analysis tools are available for this purpose. These tools also come with embedded techniques for analyzing social networks, reducing the overhead for the manual study of complex networks. The focus of this paper is on the analysis and comparison of popular tools that are often used by experts for analysis of large-scale data-sets. In this paper, we have addressed the various characteristics, functionalities, support comparison, strengths, and limitations of SNA tools based on a literature survey and expert opinions. This will help researchers and practitioners to choose a suitable tool for social network visualization and analysis.