Multilayer Social Networks

This book unifies and consolidates methods for analyzing multilayer networks arising from the social and physical sciences and computing.

Multilayer networks are an emerging and active interdisciplinary area. This book unifies and consolidates existing practical and theoretical knowledge on the topic including data collection and analysis, modeling, and mining of multilayer social network systems, and the evolution of dynamic processes such as information spreading.Multilayer networks, in particular multilayer social networks, where users belong to and interact on different networks at the same time, are an active research area in social network analysis, computer science, and physics. These networks have traditionally been studied within these separate research communities, leading to the development of several independent models and methods to deal with the same set of problems. This book unifies and consolidates existing practical and theoretical knowledge on multilayer networks including data collection and analysis, modeling, and mining of multilayer social network systems, the evolution of interconnected social networks, and dynamic processes such as information spreading. A single real dataset is used to illustrate the concepts presented throughout the book, demonstrating both the practical utility and the potential shortcomings of the various methods. Researchers from all areas of network analysis will learn new aspects and future directions of this emerging field.