Motif-based Classification in Journal Citation Networks

Journals and their citation relations are abstracted into journal citation networks, basing on CSTPC journal database from year 2003 to 2006. The network shows some typical characteristics from complex networks. This paper presents the idea of using motifs, subgraphs with higher occurrence in real network than in random ones, to discover two different citation patterns in journal communities. And a further investigation is addressed on both motif granularity and node centrality to figure out some reasons on the differences between two kinds of communities in journal citation network.