Trajectories in Epistemic Network Analysis.

While quantitative ethnographers have used epistemic network analysis (ENA) to model trajectories that show change in network structure over time, visualizing trajectory models in a way that facilitates accurate interpretation has been a significant challenge. As a result, ENA has predominantly been used to construct aggregate models, which can obscure key differences in how network structures change over time. This study reports on the development and testing of a new approach to visualizing ENA trajectories. It documents the challenges associated with visualizing ENA trajectory models, the features constructed to address those challenges, and the design decisions that aid in the interpretation of trajectory models. To test this approach, we compare ENA trajectory models with aggregate models using a dataset with previously published results and known temporal features. This comparison focuses on interpretability and consistency with prior qualitative analysis, and we show that ENA trajectories are able to represent information unavailable in aggregate models and facilitate interpretations consistent with qualitative findings. This suggests that this approach to ENA trajectories is an effective tool for representing change in network structure over time.