Consistent Community Identification in Complex Networks

Abstract

We have found that known community identification algorithms produce inconsistent communities when the node ordering changes at input. We use the pairwise membership probability and consistency to quantify the level of consistency across multiple runs of an algorithm. Based on these two metrics, we address the consistency problem without compromising the modularity. The key insight of the algorithm is to use pairwise membership probabilities as link weights. It offers a new tool in the study of community structures and their evolutions.