netCoin: Interactive Analytic Networks, Galleries and Plots for Coincidences and Regressions

netCoin combines the data analysis capabilities of R with the interactive visualization libraries of JavaScript to create networks of coincidences, co-occurrences, correlations and regressions that can be explored directly in a browser, embedded in HTML files or integrated into Shiny applications. It also generates networked HTML galleries and other plots of coincidences.

Mission

This project's aim is to integrate traditional statistical techniques with automatic learning and social network analysis tools for the purpose of obtaining visual and interactive displays of big data. The interdisciplinary team involved has the following objectives:

1. Efficiently combine different statistical techniques by integrating them under the study of the coincidence of people, objects, events or characteristics in a multiple series of scenarios.
2. Design open-source software that, under the premise of network coincidence analysis, generates different types of interactive graphics that enable an exploratory and confirmatory analysis to be made of vast quantities of information.
3. Apply all the above to the creation and handling of large databases in such diverse fields as the following:
   • survey data combined with administrative data;
   • the analysis of networks created by Twitter users and those reproduced through their messages;
   • the abstracts of scientific output in different disciplines over long periods of time through the generation of semantic maps;
   • the creation of a huge database of leading figures in the fields of philosophy, science, social sciences and the arts, which also contains their major works.

Installation

Install the released version from CRAN:

install.packages("netCoin")

Or the development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("Modesto-Escobar/netCoin")

Quick start

library(netCoin)

# Classic coincidence network from a binary incidence matrix
data(finches)
net <- netCoin(finches)
plot(net)                      # opens an interactive HTML visualisation

# Coincidence analysis with statistical significance
co <- coin(finches)
summary(co)
plot(co)

Main features

Area	Key functions
General coincidence networks	netCoin(), addNetCoin(), allNet()
Classic coincidence analysis	coin(), coocur(), propCoin()
Correlation networks	netCorr(), d_netCorr()
Survey-oriented networks	surCoin(), surScat()
Regression-based networks	logCoin(), glmCoin()
Path and cobweb networks	pathCoin(), cobCoin()
Galleries and multi-panel views	gallery(), netGallery(), netExhibit(), multiPages()
Layout and node handling	asNodes(), layoutCircle(), layoutGrid()
Export to external formats	savePajek(), saveGhml()
Shiny integration	shinyCoin()

Interactive visualisations are powered by D3.js through the companion package rD3plot.

Documentation

• Package website: https://modesto-escobar.github.io/netCoin/

• Vignettes (after installation):

  vignette("netCoin")     # introduction and main use cases
  vignette("surCoin")     # survey-oriented networks
  vignette("galleries")   # building galleries and exhibits

Citation

To cite netCoin in publications, run:

citation("netCoin")

Authors

• Modesto Escobar (Universidad de Salamanca) — creator & maintainer [ORCID]
• David Barrios (Universidad de Salamanca)
• Carlos Prieto (Universidad de Salamanca) [ORCID]
• Luis Martínez-Uribe (Universidad de Salamanca) [ORCID]
• Pablo Cabrera-Álvarez (Universidad de Salamanca) [ORCID]
• Cristina Calvo-López (Universidad de Salamanca) [ORCID]

Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by grants CSO2013-49278-EXP, PGC2018-093755-B100, PDC2022-133355-100 and PID2023-147358NB-100, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR programme.

Bug reports and contributions

Please file issues and pull requests at:

https://github.com/Modesto-Escobar/netCoin-2.x/issues

License

GPL-2 | GPL-3