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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics and Astronomy· cited by 863

Scale-free networks are rare

Anna D. Broido; Aaron Clauset · 2019 · Nature Communications

WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate

The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.

Abstract

, a pattern with broad implications for the structure and dynamics of complex systems. However, the universality of scale-free networks remains controversial. Here, we organize different definitions of scale-free networks and construct a severe test of their empirical prevalence using state-of-the-art statistical tools applied to nearly 1000 social, biological, technological, transportation, and information networks. Across these networks, we find robust evidence that strongly scale-free structure is empirically rare, while for most networks, log-normal distributions fit the data as well or be

Abstract by Anna D. Broido; Aaron Clauset, Nature Communications (2019) — licensed CC BY 4.0.

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Metadata source: OpenAlex · DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-08746-5