n --> e --> x --> u --> s

Networks are pervasive in the real world. Nature, society, economy, and technology are supported by ostensibly different networks that in fact share an amazing number of interesting structural properties.

For decades, we assumed that the components of such complex systems are randomly wired together. In the last years many researchers independently showed that such an assumption is wrong: real networks have similar architectures, regardless of their age, function, and scope, that elude the random world.

This provoked the rapid growth of network science - the holistic analysis of complex systems through the study of the structure of networks that wire their components. The expansion of this new field of science was boosted by the availability of large databases on the topology of various real networks, mainly the Web and biological networks. Read more...

Collaboration map for the field of network science (generated with Mapequation.org)

Network science collaboration network

Review articles

  1. M. E. J. Newman. The structure and function of complex networks. SIAM Review 45, 167-256 (2003). Link


  2. R. Albert and A.-L. Barabási. Statistical mechanics of complex networks. Reviews of Modern Physics 74, 47-97 (2002). Link


  3. S. N. Dorogovtsev and J. F. F. Mendes. Evolution of networks. Advances in Physics, 51, 1079-1187 (2002). Link

Books

  1. David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Link


  2. Mark Newman. Networks: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2010. Link


  3. Guido Caldarelli. Scale free networks. Oxford University Press, 2007. Link


  4. Ulrik Brandes and Thomas Erlebach (Eds.) Network Analysis. Methodological Foundations. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3418, 2005. Link


  5. S. N. Dorogovtsev and J. F. F. Mendes. Evolution of Networks: From Biological Nets to the Internet and WWW, Oxford University Press, 2003. Link

Readings

  1. Albert-László Barabási. Linked. Plume Books, 2003. Link


  2. D. J. Watts. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, Norton, 2003. Link


  3. M. Buchanan. Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks, Norton, 2002. Link

Datasets

  1. Pajek
  2. Newman
  3. Barabási
  4. Indiana University
  5. Arenas
  6. Watts
  7. UCINet

Software

  1. The igraph library for complex network research. Link


  2. Network Workbench. A large-scale network analysis, modeling and visualization toolkit. Link


  3. Pajek. Program for Large Network Analysis. Link


"Networks are present everywhere. All we need is an eye for them" - Albert-László Barabási
Network science - Massimo Franceschet