Global vs local modularity for network community detection

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 29;13(10):e0205284. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205284. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Community structures are ubiquitous in various complex networks, implying that the networks commonly be composed of groups of nodes with more internal links and less external links. As an important topic in network theory, community detection is of importance for understanding the structure and function of the networks. Optimizing statistical measures for community structures is one of most popular strategies for community detection in complex networks. In the paper, by using a type of self-loop rescaling strategy, we introduced a set of global modularity functions and a set of local modularity functions for community detection in networks, which are optimized by a kind of the self-consistent method. We carefully compared and analyzed the behaviors of the modularity-based methods in community detection, and confirmed the superiority of the local modularity for detecting community structures on large-size and heterogeneous networks. The local modularity can more quickly eliminate the first-type limit of modularity, and can eliminate or alleviate the second-type limit of modularity in networks, because of the use of the local information in networks. Moreover, we tested the methods in real networks. Finally, we expect the research can provide useful insight into the problem of community detection in complex networks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Animals
  • Community Networks / statistics & numerical data*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Dolphins / physiology
  • Dolphins / psychology
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / physiology
  • Sample Size

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the construct program of the key discipline in Hunan province, the Training Program for Excellent Innovative Youth of Changsha, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61702054 and 71871233), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2018JJ3568), the Scientific Research Fund of Education Department of Hunan Province (Grant No. 17A024, 17C0180 and 17B034), the Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission of China (Grant No. C2017013), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 9182015), and the Hunan key laboratory cultivation base of the research and development of novel pharmaceutical preparations (Grant No. 2016TP1029).