Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy chair and professor of information science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has co-edited a book on social media mining and social network analysis. 

The Springer-published book, “Prediction and Inference from Social Networks and Social Media,” is part of the publisher’s prestigious Lecture Notes in Social Networks book series.

Dr. Jalal Kawash, senior instructor of computer science at the University of Calgary in Canada, and Dr. Tansel Özyer, associate professor of computer engineering at TOBB University in Turkey, also were co-editors.

This book addresses the challenges of social network and social media analysis in terms of prediction and inference. Its creators tackle these issues by proposing new analysis approaches and by examining methods to mine the vast amount of social content.

“The book looks at data we get from social media environments and how we can predict behaviors and make inferences in a more accurate way as to avoid the fallacies of big data,” Agarwal said. “The chapters also explore how we can develop predictive models that look at the data yet are grounded in theory.”

Agarwal, who also is the director of the UA Little Rock Center of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), is highly respected for his social media research. His recent work included studying how governments and groups such as ISIS use social media to spread deviant messages and affect opinions, behavior, and media coverage.

The book is available on Springer’s website and Amazon.