Siena in R: RSiena

Note for the RSiena workshop associated with the UK Social Networks Conference, July 2, 2009

It is not necessary to install R or RSiena on your laptop before the workshop. This can be dealt with at the start of the workshop.

During the years 2009-2010, the Windows-based SIENA version 3 is being replaced by SIENA 4, also called RSiena, which is a contributed package for the R statistical system and can be executed on all platsforms for which R is available: Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux. R can be downloaded from http://cran.r-project.org, and RSiena can be loaded as one of the packages in R.

The development of RSiena is part of the project Adolescent Peer Social Network Dynamics and Problem Behavior, funded by NIH (Grant Number 1R01HD052887-01A2), Principal Investigator John M. Light (Oregon Research Institute). RSiena is being programmed by Ruth Ripley and Krists Boitmanis, in collaboration with Tom Snijders. The purposes of the transition from SIENA version 3 to version 4 are greater speed; more professional programming with all its implied advantages; increased flexibility (including eventually the possibility of user-defined effects); accessibility across more platforms; direct access to other procedures available through R packages; and greater openness to contributions by other researchers who know how to program in R and/or C/C++ because of the open-source nature of R.

When the transition is complete, RSiena will contain almost all procedures currently available in SIENA 3 for the analysis of longitudinal network data and more, but not those for analyzing Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs). For the latter methods, users are referred to statnet, pnet or SIENA version 3.

RSiena can be operated in two ways. Those who have no prior knowledge of R will find it easy to execute RSiena through the graphical user interface which allows the user to execute RSiena apparently independently of R. The graphical user interface R users can execute RSiena using the R functions supplied by this package.
The installation and operation of RSiena are explained in the users' manual.

The Siena 4 manual can be downloaded below. It includes information on how to install RSiena; how to work with the Siena graphical user interface; and some help on getting started with operating RSiena within R. In addition, it gives extensive descriptions of the methods available in RSiena.

It is expected that RSiena and its manual will be updated rather frequently. New versions of the manual will be available from this page.

Downloads / links

The Siena 4 manual (version June 28, 2009).
Setup file for the graphical user interface; the manual explains, how to use this.
General help on R:
See the "Documentation" links on http://cran.r-project.org and the Course on R programming by Ruth Ripley.

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	Siena in R: RSiena


	Note for the RSiena workshop associated with the UK Social Networks Conference, July 2, 2009 It is not necessary to install R or RSiena on your laptop before the workshop. This can be dealt with at the start of the workshop.

	During the years 2009-2010, the Windows-based SIENA version 3 is being replaced by SIENA 4, also called RSiena, which is a contributed package for the R statistical system and can be executed on all platsforms for which R is available: Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux. R can be downloaded from http://cran.r-project.org, and RSiena can be loaded as one of the packages in R. The development of RSiena is part of the project Adolescent Peer Social Network Dynamics and Problem Behavior, funded by NIH (Grant Number 1R01HD052887-01A2), Principal Investigator John M. Light (Oregon Research Institute). RSiena is being programmed by Ruth Ripley and Krists Boitmanis, in collaboration with Tom Snijders. The purposes of the transition from SIENA version 3 to version 4 are greater speed; more professional programming with all its implied advantages; increased flexibility (including eventually the possibility of user-defined effects); accessibility across more platforms; direct access to other procedures available through R packages; and greater openness to contributions by other researchers who know how to program in R and/or C/C++ because of the open-source nature of R. When the transition is complete, RSiena will contain almost all procedures currently available in SIENA 3 for the analysis of longitudinal network data and more, but not those for analyzing Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs). For the latter methods, users are referred to statnet, pnet or SIENA version 3. RSiena can be operated in two ways. Those who have no prior knowledge of R will find it easy to execute RSiena through the graphical user interface which allows the user to execute RSiena apparently independently of R. The graphical user interface R users can execute RSiena using the R functions supplied by this package. The installation and operation of RSiena are explained in the users' manual. The Siena 4 manual can be downloaded below. It includes information on how to install RSiena; how to work with the Siena graphical user interface; and some help on getting started with operating RSiena within R. In addition, it gives extensive descriptions of the methods available in RSiena. It is expected that RSiena and its manual will be updated rather frequently. New versions of the manual will be available from this page.

	Downloads / links The Siena 4 manual (version June 28, 2009). Setup file for the graphical user interface; the manual explains, how to use this. General help on R: See the "Documentation" links on http://cran.r-project.org and the Course on R programming by Ruth Ripley.


	Back to the Siena page