Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks

1999/10/15 by Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási, Réka Albert · 256 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence

paper · doi:10.1126/science.286.5439.509

openalex publication_date 1999/10/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Systems as diverse as genetic networks or the World Wide Web are best described as networks with complex topology. A common property of many large networks is that the vertex connectivities follow a scale-free power-law distribution. This feature was found to be a consequence of two generic mechanisms: (i) networks expand continuously by the addition of new vertices, and (ii) new vertices attach preferentially to sites that are already well connected. A model based on these two ingredients reproduces the observed stationary scale-free distributions, which indicates that the development of large networks is governed by robust self-organizing phenomena that go beyond the particulars of the individual systems.

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