Tutorial 1: Bibliographic Networks in Tethne

In this tutorial we'll use a Python library called Tethne to generate a variety of network models using bibliographic metadata. If you've never used a programming language before, don't panic! We'll do this in a way that eases you in, and requires you to write almost no code.

IPython Notebooks

Since you've already installed all of the software in Preparing your computer for the course and Software Requirements (Module 2), you should have IPython ready to go (it comes bundled with Anaconda).

To start using IPython, access The Terminal, and enter the following command:

$ ipython notebook

You should see something like this:

On some systems, a browser window will open automatically. If it does not, go to the following location in your browser of choice: http://localhost:8888/

You should see a listing of the directories and files in your current directory:

If you get this far, you're good to go! Close the browser window, and then go back to the terminal window. Press ctrl-c on your keyboard to stop the IPython server.

Get the Tethne tutorial notebooks

We maintain an evolving collection of IPython notebooks that introduce various techniques for using Tethne to do bibliographic analysis. To get these notebooks, go to: https://github.com/diging/tethne-notebooks, and click on the "Download ZIP" button (this might look different in your browser; it should be somewhere on the right side of the page).

 Once the download completes, unzip the package and put it somewhere where you can find it via the terminal.

Go back to the terminal, and use the cd command to navigate to the tethne-notebooks-master folder. For example:

$ cd ~/Desktop/cdh/tethne-notebooks-master

Now start the IPython server again.

$ ipython notebook

Work Through the First Notebook

Select the first notebook, titled "1. Working with data from the Web of Science."

This should open a new window, and display the notebook.

This notebook will walk you through collecting bibliographic data from the Thompson Reuters Web of Science, building a network model, and visualizing it with Cytoscape. Don't overlook the sample dataset mentioned in the notebook! 

If you run into trouble, please let us know right away.