Small-World and Scale-Free Network Analysis

Small-world and scale-free network analysis tests whether a real-world network exhibits two landmark topological signatures identified in 1998-1999: the Watts-Strogatz small-world property (high local clustering combined with short average path lengths) and the Barabási-Albert scale-free property (a degree distribution that follows a power law, meaning a small number of hubs connect to a disproportionately large share of other nodes). Together these frameworks transformed network science by showing that many social, biological, and technological networks share a common structural grammar.