TITLE: Can 'network' and 'graph' be used interchangably?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: This question is with regards to terminology. I am writing a journal paper that describes the software I develop at my workplace call Navigator. The software is used for visualization of networks/graphs. At work, we commonly interchange the use of the words 'networks' and 'graphs' to refer to the same concept. But for writing the journal paper, I would like to know if they can be safely interchanged, or if they refer to slightly different concepts?
The software is used for modeling arbitrary entities as nodes and arbitrary connections between them as edges between the nodes. The graphs are not directed. No flow is implied, but some idea of flow can be added by attaching numerical/textual attributes to the edges.

REPLY [2 votes]: I worked at a telecommunications equipment company for several years, and although there was no hard-and-fast distinction between "graph" and "network," I would say that we tended to use "graph" for an abstract mathematical object and "network" for something whose nodes had some kind of physical existence.
It sounds to me that your software deals with entities that are on the abstract end of the spectrum, so I would tend to call them graphs.  "Network" may carry a connotation that your software is used for designing specific kinds of physical networks, such as telephone networks, road networks, etc.