# backbone: An R package to extract network backbones

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.11055 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11055/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 Mar 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Support Thresholds, Not Algorithms, Limit Rare-Association Recovery in Co-Purchase Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20171/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Networks are useful for representing phenomena in a broad range of domains. Although their ability to represent complexity can be a virtue, it is sometimes useful to focus on a simplified network that contains only the most important edges: the backbone. This paper introduces and demonstrates the `backbone' package for R, which implements methods for extracting the backbone from weighted networks, weighted bipartite projections, and unweighted networks. For each type of network, fully replicable code is presented first for small toy examples, then for complete empirical examples using transportation, political, and social networks. The paper also demonstrates the implications of several issues of statistical inference that arise in backbone extraction. It concludes by briefly reviewing existing applications of backbone extraction using the `backbone' package, and future directions for research on network backbone extraction.