A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks

The community structure is a major feature of bipartite networks, which serve as a typical model for empirical networks consisting of two kinds of nodes. Over the past years, community detection has drawn a lot of attention. Numerous methods for community detection have been put forth. Nevertheless,...

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Main Authors: Ali Khosrozadeh, Ali Movaghar, Mohammad Mehdi Gilanian Sadeghi, Hamidreza Mahyar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Information
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/5/417
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author Ali Khosrozadeh
Ali Movaghar
Mohammad Mehdi Gilanian Sadeghi
Hamidreza Mahyar
author_facet Ali Khosrozadeh
Ali Movaghar
Mohammad Mehdi Gilanian Sadeghi
Hamidreza Mahyar
author_sort Ali Khosrozadeh
collection DOAJ
description The community structure is a major feature of bipartite networks, which serve as a typical model for empirical networks consisting of two kinds of nodes. Over the past years, community detection has drawn a lot of attention. Numerous methods for community detection have been put forth. Nevertheless, some of them need a lot of time, which restricts their use in large networks. While several low-time complexity algorithms exist, their practical value in real-world applications is limited since they are typically non-deterministic. Typically, in bipartite networks, a unipartite projection of one part of the network is created, and then communities are detected inside that projection using methods for unipartite networks. Unipartite projections may yield incorrect or erroneous findings as they inevitably include a loss of information. In this paper, BiVoting, a two-mode and deterministic community detection method in bipartite networks, is proposed. This method is a consequence of bipartite modularity, which quantifies the strength of partitions and is based on how people vote in social elections. The proposed method’s performance was evaluated, and comparison with four common community detection methods in bipartite networks shows that for calculating the modularity score in large networks, BiVoting performs better than the best method.
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spelling doaj-art-496426844a4b43ca9e6edc11c3a8f91c2025-08-20T03:14:31ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892025-05-0116541710.3390/info16050417A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite NetworksAli Khosrozadeh0Ali Movaghar1Mohammad Mehdi Gilanian Sadeghi2Hamidreza Mahyar3Department of Computer and Information Technology Engineering, Qa.C., Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, IranDepartment of Computer Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 1458889694, IranDepartment of Computer and Information Technology Engineering, Qa.C., Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, IranFaculty of Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, CanadaThe community structure is a major feature of bipartite networks, which serve as a typical model for empirical networks consisting of two kinds of nodes. Over the past years, community detection has drawn a lot of attention. Numerous methods for community detection have been put forth. Nevertheless, some of them need a lot of time, which restricts their use in large networks. While several low-time complexity algorithms exist, their practical value in real-world applications is limited since they are typically non-deterministic. Typically, in bipartite networks, a unipartite projection of one part of the network is created, and then communities are detected inside that projection using methods for unipartite networks. Unipartite projections may yield incorrect or erroneous findings as they inevitably include a loss of information. In this paper, BiVoting, a two-mode and deterministic community detection method in bipartite networks, is proposed. This method is a consequence of bipartite modularity, which quantifies the strength of partitions and is based on how people vote in social elections. The proposed method’s performance was evaluated, and comparison with four common community detection methods in bipartite networks shows that for calculating the modularity score in large networks, BiVoting performs better than the best method.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/5/417social networksbipartite networkscommunity structurecommunity detectionvoting
spellingShingle Ali Khosrozadeh
Ali Movaghar
Mohammad Mehdi Gilanian Sadeghi
Hamidreza Mahyar
A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
Information
social networks
bipartite networks
community structure
community detection
voting
title A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
title_full A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
title_fullStr A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
title_full_unstemmed A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
title_short A Novel Method for Community Detection in Bipartite Networks
title_sort novel method for community detection in bipartite networks
topic social networks
bipartite networks
community structure
community detection
voting
url https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/5/417
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