![](bg8.png)
the remaining six collections, we found rather small,
yet noticeable variations in the number of vertices,
number of edges, number of connected components,
and the degree distribution. As expected, all incom-
plete collections showed differences in terms of net-
work characteristics. However, we also found smaller
network-level differences regarding certain network
characteristics for some complete collections.
Based on our study, we derive the following rec-
ommendations for researchers using Twitter’s free-
of-charge API. First, the status codes and error mes-
sages issued by Twitter’s API must be handled and
documented properly in order to avoid incomplete
data samples. Second, we suggest researchers to be
cautious when relying on attribute values which are
expected to change in time and in space, such as
count attributes (e.g. retweet count or like count). In
addition, our previous research on (dis-)similarities
between individual geolocations (see Ivanova et al.
2022) recommended the use of three or more geolo-
cations for accessing the Twitter API in parallel, and
the use of a three-day delay.
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