Preregister an SNA Study
Commit the network boundary, tie construction, exclusions, metrics, model, sensitivity checks, privacy plan, and decision rule before inspecting outcomes.
Method sources
By the end of this tutorial
- 1Define preregistration for social network analysis from an explicit node, tie, boundary, direction, weight, and observation-window specification.
- 2Apply and audit this procedure: Register hypotheses, estimands, boundary and tie rules, timing, exclusions, missingness, metric formulas, model terms, convergence and fit criteria, multiplicity control, sensitivity analyses, privacy governance, stopping rules, code plan, and permitted exploratory work.
- 3Interpret the result with a sensitivity check and the following evidence boundary: Preregistration cannot rescue an invalid tie or unethical design, and deviations can be legitimate only when dated, justified, and reported separately from confirmatory analyses.
SNA
Network specification
Analysis scenario
A multi-school team plans to test whether a professional-learning program changes cross-department advice ties and wants to prevent outcome-driven graph choices.
Nodes
Eligible educators in participating and comparison schools under a census-date roster rule written before data collection.
Ties
A directed teaching-advice nomination during a fixed eight-week window, with wording, cap, weight, and missingness rule frozen in advance.
Network type
Repeated directed whole networks nested in schools, with planned comparisons, school assignment, actor attributes, and protected relational data.
Step-by-step tutorial
Freeze the relational question
Write the decision the analysis must inform, then lock the eligible node roster, tie-generating event, direction, weight, self-tie rule, observation window, and missing-data code. Preserve a read-only source copy and record why this specification represents the stated question.
Checkpoint
A second analyst can reconstruct the same node set and edge table from the written rules without guessing what an absent record means.
Compute the focal structure
Work on a versioned analysis copy and carry out the focal method exactly as specified: Register hypotheses, estimands, boundary and tie rules, timing, exclusions, missingness, metric formulas, model terms, convergence and fit criteria, multiplicity control, sensitivity analyses, privacy governance, stopping rules, code plan, and permitted exploratory work. Save software and package versions, every threshold, normalization, seed, and intermediate count needed to reproduce the result.
Checkpoint
The output is tied to one named data version and includes the denominator, parameter settings, and a reproducible calculation record.
Run a structural sensitivity check
Repeat the analysis under at least one defensible alternative boundary, missingness rule, tie threshold, weight transformation, or model setting. Compare membership and substantive conclusions, not only a single coefficient, and investigate every change large enough to alter a decision.
Checkpoint
The audit states which patterns persist, which actors or groups change classification, and which conclusion depends on an analyst choice.
Report for responsible action
Pair the numerical result with a table or structure-preserving visual, document excluded and missing actors, and explain uncertainty in plain language. Convert the finding into a reversible support question, not an automatic ranking, while stating this boundary: Preregistration cannot rescue an invalid tie or unethical design, and deviations can be legitimate only when dated, justified, and reported separately from confirmatory analyses.
Checkpoint
The final note contains the question, specification, result, sensitivity evidence, uncertainty, privacy controls, and a proportionate next step.
Interpret with care
preregistration for social network analysis describes a property of the specified relation and network boundary. It does not transfer automatically to another relation, time period, class, platform, or population.
Preregistration cannot rescue an invalid tie or unethical design, and deviations can be legitimate only when dated, justified, and reported separately from confirmatory analyses. Compare the result with raw counts, missingness, plausible alternative specifications, and contextual evidence before acting.