Enhance Closure Effects with New Arguments (history, weighted, form)

[auzaheta]

Description:

This issue proposes enhancing the flexibility and functionality of the closure effects by adding several new arguments. These additions aim to allow users to specify different computational approaches, handle weighting, and control for the sequence of events when calculating closure statistics.

Proposed New Arguments:

• history:

  • Description: This argument would allow users to specify how the sequence or history of events influences the calculation of the closure effect. Different options could capture whether the order of ties/events leading to closure matters or if only the presence/absence of the necessary ties is considered. Time ordered transitivity effect? #56
  • Proposed Values: pool, cons, seq.

• weighted:

  • Description: This argument would enable the computation of weighted versions of closure effects.
  • Values: a logical value (TRUE/FALSE).

• form:

  • Description: This argument would specify the mathematical form used to compute the closure statistic from the components of the closure configuration. This allows for different interpretations of how the relationships combine to form closure.
  • Potential Values: Character strings such as "min", "prod", "sum", or potentially other relevant functions.

Motivation:

Current closure effects are relatively fixed in their computation. Adding these arguments would provide users with more control and allow for the modelling of more nuanced theoretical mechanisms underlying network closure processes. This aligns with recent papers on the field.

Next Steps:

• Discuss the proposed arguments and their specifications.
• Outline the implementation details for each argument within the existing closure effect functions.
• Develop and add tests for the new functionalities.
• Update documentation and examples to reflect the new arguments.