Link analysis

In network theory, link analysis is a data-analysis technique used to evaluate relationships (connections) between nodes. Relationships may be identified among various types of nodes (objects), including organizations, people and transactions. Link analysis has been used for investigation of criminal activity (fraud detection, counterterrorism, and intelligence), computer security analysis, search engine optimization, market research, medical research, and art.

Knowledge discovery is an iterative and interactive process used to identify, analyze and visualize patterns in data. Network analysis, link analysis and social network analysis are all methods of knowledge discovery, each a corresponding subset of the prior method. Most knowledge discovery methods follow these steps (at the highest level):

Data gathering and processing requires access to data and has several inherent issues, including information overload and data errors. Once data is collected, it will need to be transformed into a format that can be effectively used by both human and computer analyzers. Manual or computer-generated visualizations tools may be mapped from the data, including network charts. Several algorithms exist to help with analysis of data – Dijkstra’s algorithm, breadth-first search, and depth-first search.

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