Discussion to: Bayesian graphical models for modern biological applications by Y. Ni, V. Baladandayuthapani, M. Vannucci and F.C. Stingo. Looking for the missing link between graphical models and social network analysis

In the present contribution we provide a discussion of the paper on ‘‘Bayesian graphical models for modern biological applications’’. The authors present an extensive review of Bayesian graphical models, which are used for a variety of inferential tasks applied to biology and medicine settings. Our contribution proposes a conceptual connection between two scientific frameworks, graphical models and social network analysis, by highlighting also the role played by network models and random graphs. A bibliometric analysis is performed by exploiting publications collected from online bibliographic archives to map the main themes characterizing the two research fields. Specifically, a co-word network analysis is carried out using visualization tools and thematic evolution maps.