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arXiv · 1706.02324

Efficient method for estimating the number of communities in a network

Maria A. Riolo·George T. Cantwell·Gesine Reinert·M. E. J. Newman
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Abstract

While there exist a wide range of effective methods for community detection in networks, most of them require one to know in advance how many communities one is looking for. Here we present a method for estimating the number of communities in a network using a combination of Bayesian inference with a novel prior and an efficient Monte Carlo sampling scheme. We test the method extensively on both real and computer-generated networks, showing that it performs accurately and consistently, even in cases where groups are widely varying in size or structure.

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Maria A. Riolo, George T. Cantwell, Gesine Reinert, M. E. J. Newman. 2017-06-07. Efficient method for estimating the number of communities in a network. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.96.032310

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