M. J. Silk

Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate

The paper examines how reduced social connectedness in older primates can mitigate infection risks from a hypothetical pathogen, showing age-related changes in social behavior affect disease dynamics.

Group size and modularity interact to shape the spread of infection and information through animal societies

This study uses simulations to show that modular social networks can promote information spread over disease spread, especially in small groups and fragmented networks.

Quantifying the influence of space on social group structure

The paper introduces a method to quantify the relationship between social and spatial structure in animal groups and applies it to both simulated and empirical data.

Host-associated fungal communities are determined by host phylogeny and exhibit widespread associations with the bacterial microbiome

The paper shows fungal communities in hosts are shaped by host phylogeny and interact with bacterial microbiomes across 49 species.

Calculating effect sizes in animal social network analysis

The paper demonstrates that relying solely on permutations to control for confounding variables in social network analysis can lead to biased and uninterpretable effect sizes, and recommends controlling for confounders in statistical models.

Common datastream permutations of animal social network data are not appropriate for hypothesis testing using regression models

The paper shows that common datastream permutations are not suitable for testing regression models in animal social networks due to high false-positive rates.