applsci-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Advances in Complex Networks: Graph Theory, AI, and Data Science

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 755

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: social network analysis; graph neural networks; intelligent analysis of agricultural data; smart fishery informatization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: machine learning; bioinformatics; AI; big data science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the study of complex networks has become a central topic across mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering. The rapid growth of data-driven technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) has created new opportunities for understanding, modeling, and optimizing complex systems—ranging from social and biological networks to communication, transport, and information systems.

This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research and innovative methodologies at the intersection of graph theory, AI, and data science. It welcomes both theoretical developments and practical applications that address the challenges of analyzing, modeling, and leveraging complex network structures in real-world contexts.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Advanced theories and methods in graph theory and network science; 
  • AI and machine learning techniques for network analysis and prediction; 
  • Network representation learning and graph neural networks (GNNs); 
  • Link prediction, community detection, and network reconstruction in complex systems; 
  • Dynamic and multilayer networks modeling; 
  • Network robustness, resilience, and control; 
  • Applications in social, biological, transportation, energy, and information networks; 
  • Data-driven approaches to complex network inference and optimization.

This Special Issue seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between researchers and practitioners in mathematics, data science, computer science, and engineering, promoting the development of novel tools and theories for understanding the structure and dynamics of complex interconnected systems.

Dr. Huan Wang
Dr. Shichao Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • complex networks
  • graph theory
  • artificial intelligence
  • data science
  • network analysis

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

26 pages, 1951 KB  
Article
A Distance-Driven Centroid Method for Community Detection Using Influential Nodes in Social Networks
by Srinivas Amedapu and R. Leela Velusamy
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(7), 3329; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16073329 - 30 Mar 2026
Viewed by 356
Abstract
Community detection is a key task in the analysis of complex networks, particularly in social network analysis, where uncovering cohesive and well-separated groups is essential for understanding structural organization and interaction patterns. Many existing centroid-based community detection methods rely primarily on node degree [...] Read more.
Community detection is a key task in the analysis of complex networks, particularly in social network analysis, where uncovering cohesive and well-separated groups is essential for understanding structural organization and interaction patterns. Many existing centroid-based community detection methods rely primarily on node degree for centroid selection, which often leads to centroid crowding and insufficient spatial separation among communities. To address these limitations, this paper proposes Degree–Distance Centroid–Community Detection with Influential Nodes (DDC-CDIN), a distance-driven and influence-aware community detection framework. In the proposed approach, nodes are first ranked according to an Enhanced Degree Centrality measure that incorporates degree information, neighbourhood structure, and local clustering characteristics to identify structurally influential nodes. Centroids are then selected iteratively from the top-ranked influential nodes by maximizing shortest-path distances, ensuring that the chosen centroids are both representative and well dispersed within the network. Once the centroids are determined, the remaining nodes are assigned to communities based on the minimum geodesic distance, yielding compact, clearly separated clusters. Extensive experiments across multiple real-world networks show that DDC-CDIN achieves competitive performance compared to traditional centroid-based and modularity-driven methods in terms of modularity, community cohesion, and boundary clarity. The results indicate that jointly incorporating influence-aware node ranking with distance-based centroid dispersion effectively mitigates centroid crowding and enhances overall community detection quality. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of DDC-CDIN for detecting well-structured and topologically coherent communities in complex networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Complex Networks: Graph Theory, AI, and Data Science)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop