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Graph Analytics for Social Networks
Subject area: Science,Engineering and Technology · Area of research: Graph Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722315
Abstract
Social networks generate vast amounts of relational data whose value lies not in individual data points but in the structure of connections among them. Graph analytics offers a mathematically grounded toolkit for uncovering this structure, ranging from simple degree counts to sophisticated community-detection and influence-propagation models. This paper presents a self-contained treatment of graph analytics as applied to social networks. We review the foundational graph-theoretic concepts underlying social network analysis, survey the principal families of graph analytics methods, and examine community detection and influence analysis in depth. To ground the discussion empirically, we conduct a case study on Zachary's Karate Club network and a synthetically generated scale-free network, computing centrality measures, detecting communities using the Louvain algorithm, and analysing degree-distribution behavior. The Louvain method partitions the Karate Club network into four communities with a modularity of 0.4266, closely matching the network's known factional split, while the synthetic network exhibits an approximate power-law degree distribution with exponent 1.76, consistent with preferential-attachment growth. We conclude with a discussion of open challenges and directions for future research, including dynamic graph analytics, scalability to billion-edge networks, and privacy-preserving analysis.
Keywords
graph theory, social network analysis, community detection, Louvain algorithm, centrality, influence analysis, scale-free networks
How to cite this paper
@article{1722315,
author = {Sachin Sharma},
title = {Graph Analytics for Social Networks},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
pages = {1437-1445},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722315.pdf},
abstract = {Social networks generate vast amounts of relational data whose value lies not in individual data points but in the structure of connections among them. Graph analytics offers a mathematically grounded toolkit for uncovering this structure, ranging from simple degree counts to sophisticated community-detection and influence-propagation models. This paper presents a self-contained treatment of graph analytics as applied to social networks. We review the foundational graph-theoretic concepts underlying social network analysis, survey the principal families of graph analytics methods, and examine community detection and influence analysis in depth. To ground the discussion empirically, we conduct a case study on Zachary's Karate Club network and a synthetically generated scale-free network, computing centrality measures, detecting communities using the Louvain algorithm, and analysing degree-distribution behavior. The Louvain method partitions the Karate Club network into four communities with a modularity of 0.4266, closely matching the network's known factional split, while the synthetic network exhibits an approximate power-law degree distribution with exponent 1.76, consistent with preferential-attachment growth. We conclude with a discussion of open challenges and directions for future research, including dynamic graph analytics, scalability to billion-edge networks, and privacy-preserving analysis.},
keywords = {graph theory, social network analysis, community detection, Louvain algorithm, centrality, influence analysis, scale-free networks},
month = {August},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722315}
}