Discovery of Communities Defined by Node Roles in Directed Signed Graphs

Discovery of Communities Defined by Node Roles in Directed Signed Graphs | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Discovery of Communities Defined by Node Roles in Directed Signed Graphs SHIVANJALI RANASHING, Raj Bhatnagar This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9248668/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In directed and signed graphs presence of both edge directions and signs enriches the semantics associated with the graphs and their subgraphs. This enables us to assign more complex meanings to communities in the graphs and makes the community detection problem very challenging. Most existing algorithms rely on modularity maximization, a global metric that often overlooks local graph properties within individual communities. In many real-world scenarios, such as who-trusts-who networks, meaningful communities are defined by local constraints —for example, groups of individuals commonly trusted or distrusted by the same set of people. We propose here a novel methodology for discovering locally consistent and closed communities in directed and signed graphs. Our approach first transforms a directed signed graph into an undirected tripartite graph, where each node is represented in its three roles: source, target of positive edge, and target of negative edge. We then embed nodes of this graph into a lower-dimensional space, identify dense regions of source or target nodes as seed communities, and grow the seeds through closure operations to include all related and consistent target and source nodes. Experiments on public datasets demonstrate that our method uncovers semantically meaningful and structurally consistent communities. Mining directed signed graphs Community detection Locally constrained communities in graphs Role-based communities Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 06 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 01 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 31 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 27 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9248668","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":616083527,"identity":"54cb0cdf-d647-4708-8812-1b1833cb8993","order_by":0,"name":"SHIVANJALI RANASHING","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA00lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLACxgYGBn4gfeABhG9AnBZJID6QQJIWgwNABlFazNvPHvz4c0dd4uZrhx8CbTksz8DevE0CnxaZM3nJ0rxnDiduu51mANJi2MBzrAyvFgmGHANpxrYDxma3E8BaEhgkcszwa+F/Y/zzZ1udsfHs9A8QLfJvCGgBmcnbxixnIJ0Ds4WHkJY3Zta8bYflJG7nFBxIMEg3bONJK7bA77Ac45tAh/Hwz07f/OFDhbU8P/vhjTfwaUEDwBhhI0H5KBgFo2AUjAIcAADfy0aG9IrQhgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Cincinnati","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"SHIVANJALI","middleName":"","lastName":"RANASHING","suffix":""},{"id":616083528,"identity":"e954c3da-c5bc-49b5-acc2-f8acdd841565","order_by":1,"name":"Raj Bhatnagar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Cincinnati","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Raj","middleName":"","lastName":"Bhatnagar","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-27 23:23:29","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9248668/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9248668/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106094848,"identity":"da516bc3-adfd-41d5-91b3-8a3c658a209d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-03 11:43:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":10101256,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"DiscoveryofCommunitiesDefinedbyNodeRolesinDirectedSignedGraphs.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9248668/v1_covered_cf73d1d7-af7e-4462-ac6c-ba824f750732.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Discovery of Communities Defined by Node Roles in Directed Signed Graphs","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"applied-network-science","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"apns","sideBox":"Learn more about [Applied Network Science](http://appliednetsci.springeropen.com/)","snPcode":"41109","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/41109/3","title":"Applied Network Science","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Mining directed signed graphs, Community detection, Locally constrained communities in graphs, Role-based communities","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9248668/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9248668/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn directed and signed graphs presence of both edge directions and signs enriches the semantics associated with the graphs and their subgraphs. 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