Phys.org September 26, 2024
Social and technical networks undergo constant evolution driven by both existing entities and newcomers. In academia, research papers are continually cited by new papers, while senior researchers integrate newly arrived junior researchers into their academic networks. Moreover, social systems can be influenced by external factors that could indirectly impact their growth patterns. For instance, systematic discrimination against certain groups in academia or managerial positions can impede their long-term growth, especially when combined with group-level preferences in hiring or adoption, as observed in our study. An international team of researchers (Germany, Austria) introduced a network growth and adoption model where generalized preferential attachment and asymmetric mixing act as the two fundamental mechanisms of growth and adoption. They showed how analytically and numerically these mechanisms could recover the empirical properties of citation and collaboration growth, as well as the inequalities observed in the growth dynamics of groups. According to the researchers this model could be used to investigate the effect of intervention in group mixing preferences to overcome the cumulative disparities in the group-level dynamics… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
A simple illustration of the network growth model with asymmetric mixing. Credit: Communications Physics volume 7, Article number: 309 (2024)