On Clustering Coefficients in Complex Networks

Abstract

The clustering coefficient is a valuable tool for understanding the structure of complex networks. It is widely used to analyze social networks, biological networks, and other complex systems. While there is generally a single common definition for the local clustering coefficient, there are two different ways to calculate the global clustering coefficient. The first approach takes the average of the local clustering coefficients for each node in the network. The second one is based on the ratio of closed triplets to all triplets. It is shown that these two definitions of the global clustering coefficients are strongly inequivalent and may significantly impact the accuracy of the outcome.