A spreading activation-based label propagation algorithm for overlapping community detection in dynamic social networks

Abstract Community detection in temporal social networks is an increasingly challenging subject in network analysis. The Label Propagation Algorithm (LPA) is a simple and fast approach for community detection in dynamic networks. However, it tends to generate monster communities which decrease the accuracy of community detection, especially in dynamic social networks. In this paper, we propose a modified LPA, called Spreading Activation Label Propagation Algorithm in order to solve the problem. This method assigns a property, called activation value, to each label, where pairs (label name, activation value) are propagated by spreading activation process and the LPA. Furthermore, this algorithm uses two weighting algorithms, where each of them corresponds to one variation of the proposed method. Here, the variations of the proposed method and other available methods on real and synthetic networks are implemented. Experimental results on both real and synthetic networks show that all variations of the proposed method detect communities more accurately compared to the benchmark methods while they are slower than these methods.