Basic notions for the analysis of large two-mode networks

Many large real-world networks actually have a two-mode nature: their nodes may be separated into two classes, the links being between nodes of different classes only. Despite this, and despite the fact that many ad hoc tools have been designed for the study of special cases, very few exist to analyse (describe, extract relevant information) such networks in a systematic way. We propose here an extension of the most basic notions used nowadays to analyse large one-mode networks (the classical case) to the two-mode case. To achieve this, we introduce a set of simple statistics, which we discuss by comparing their values on a representative set of real-world networks and on their random versions. This makes it possible to evaluate their relevance in capturing properties of interest in two-mode networks. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.