  A longitudinal social network evolves over time through the creation and/ or
deletion of links among a set of actors (e.g. individuals or organizations).
Longitudinal social networks are studied by network science and social science
researchers to understand networke volution, trend propagation, friendship and
belief formation, diffusion of innovation, the spread of deviant behavior and
more. In the current literature, there are different approaches and methods
(e.g. Sampsons approach and the markov model) to study the dynamics of
longitudinal social networks. These approaches and methods have mainly been
utilised to explore evolutionary changes of longitudinal social networks from
one state to another and to explain the underlying reasons for these changes.
However, they cannot quantify the level of dynamicity of the over time network
changes and the contribution of individual network members (i.e. actors) to
these changes. In this study, we first develop a set of measures to quantify
different aspects of the dynamicity of a longitudinal social network. We then
apply these measures, in order to conduct empirical investigations, to two
different longitudinal social networks. Finally, we discuss the implications of
the application of these measures and possible future research directions of
this study.
