Title: A survey on topological properties, network models and analytical measures in detecting influential nodes in online social networks

Authors: Ebin Deni Raj; L.D. Dhinesh Babu

Addresses: School of Information Technology and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Information Technology and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: There has been a surge in the usage and spread of online social networks in the past few years. This paper focuses on online social networks, which is the most prominent complex network in the modern world. People use online social networks for making friendships, learning, for entertainment and to review product items. This expanded impact of online social networks has prompted the rise of a research area named online social network analysis. This paper reflects the research aspects in the detection of influential nodes in online social networks with respect to topological properties, network generation models and analytical measures in online social networks. We have clearly presented the concepts, issues and future research directions in the influential node detection in online social network analysis. The factors and conditions for the evolution and growth of online social networks and the pre-requisites for generating a random graph for simulation of online social networks have been discussed. The paper gives a clear direction on the relation between computation of influential users and the properties, models and measures in online social networks.

Keywords: online social networks; OSN; social network analysis; SNA; topological properties; random graph generation; influential nodes; network measures; influential node detection; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2017.082718

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2017 Vol.13 No.1, pp.137 - 156

Received: 28 Mar 2016
Accepted: 08 Apr 2016
Published online: 09 Mar 2017 *

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