Data files and variables for the Harry Potter support networks of Goele Bossaert and Nadine Meidert

Download the data set (zip file) .

Goele Bossaert and Nadine Meidert have coded the support ties between 64 characters in the well-known books about Harry Potter. They analyzed this by Siena; their findings were published in
Goele Bossaert and Nadine Meidert (2013). 'We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided'. A dynamic analysis of the peer support networks in the Harry Potter books. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 174-185.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojapps.2013.32024

They made the data available for general use. It must be noted that their paper shows that the data are quite heterogeneous over time. This must be dealt with by specifying a time-heterogeneous model, or by analyzing only a small number of (consecutive) waves.
The zip file contains the following files:

Data files:

Network data files (adjacency matrices):
hpbook1.txt to hpbook6.txt
Actor attributes
hpattributes.txt
with variables schoolyear, gender, and house.
hpnames.txt the names!
Composition change
compositionchange.dat

Example setup files for RSiena:

A script
HarryPotter.r as an example of how to analyze books 2 to 4, which form together a relatively homogeneous sequence as far as the network dynamics is concerned.

References

Goele Bossaert and Nadine Meidert (2013). 'We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided'. A dynamic analysis of the peer support networks in the Harry Potter books. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 174-185.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojapps.2013.32024

Visualization

A nice visualization using the R package geomnet is at https://github.com/sctyner/geomnet#harry-potter-peer-support-network.

Back to the Siena data sets page