Networks of Collaborations: Hypergraph Modeling and Visualisation

The acknowledged model for networks of collaborations is the hypergraph model. Nonetheless when it comes to be visualized hypergraphs are transformed into simple graphs. Very often, the transformation is made by clique expansion of the hyperedges resulting in a loss of information for the user and in artificially more complex graphs due to the high number of edges represented. The extra-node representation gives substantial improvement in the visualisation of hypergraphs and in the retrieval of information. This paper aims at showing qualitatively and quantitatively how the extra-node representation can improve the visualisation of hypergraphs without loss of information.