Consistency of community structure in complex networks
Consistency of community structure in complex networks
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DOI：
10.1103/physreve.101.052306
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发表时间：
2020-05-08
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Newman, M. E. J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Riolo, Maria A.;Newman, M. E. J.
网络中最广泛使用的社区检测技术，包括基于模块化、统计推断和信息理论论证的方法，都是通过优化衡量网络分区质量的目标函数来工作的。然而，有一个很好的例子可以说明，在这样一个目标函数下，人们不应该只关注单一的最优社区结构，而应该关注高分结构的选择。如果这样做，人们通常会发现结果结构显示出相当大的变化，这可以作为这些社区检测方法不可靠的证据，因为它们似乎没有给出一致的答案。在这里，我们认为，经过仔细观察，发现的结构实际上在某种程度上是一致的。具体来说，我们展示了它们都可以从一组底层的“构建块”（通常在同一社区中一起发现的网络节点组）组装起来。不同的社区结构对应着不同的街区安排，但街区本身在很大程度上是不变的。我们提出了一种信息理论方法来发现特定网络中的构建块，并通过几个示例应用进行了演示。我们得出的结论是，传统的社区检测实际上确实提供了对网络结构的大量洞察。
The most widely used techniques for community detection in networks, including methods based on modularity, statistical inference, and information theoretic arguments, all work by optimizing objective functions that measure the quality of network partitions. There is a good case to be made, however, that one should not look solely at the single optimal community structure under such an objective function but rather at a selection of high-scoring structures. If one does this, one typically finds that the resulting structures show considerable variation, which could be taken as evidence that these community detection methods are unreliable, since they do not appear to give consistent answers. Here we argue that, upon closer inspection, the structures found are in fact consistent in a certain way. Specifically, we show that they can all be assembled from a set of underlying "building blocks," groups of network nodes that are usually found together in the same community. Different community structures correspond to different arrangements of blocks, but the blocks themselves are largely invariant. We propose an information theoretic method for discovering the building blocks in specific networks and demonstrate it with several example applications. We conclude that traditional community detection does in fact give a significant amount of insight into network structure.