Structure and Tie Strengths in Mobile Communication Networks

J.-P. Onnela, J. Saramäki, J. Hyvönen, A.-L. Barabási, et al. · PNAS / arXiv · 2007 · sociology · 10.1073/pnas.0610245104 · record onnela2007-tie-strengths
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית

Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (pdftext); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. method: no term in the suggested vocabulary fits. The paper is primarily an empirical analysis of an observational phone-log network (degree/weight distributions, neighbourhood overlap, link-removal percolation with finite-size scaling), so I used 'network-analysis'; a diffusion simulation on that same graph is a secondary method ('we infect a randomly selected individual with some novel information'), and the supplementary material adds resampling experiments. Claim type: I chose mechanism over existence because the paper's headline is causal in shape — the observed local coupling is what produces the phase-transition asymmetry and the dynamic trapping of information — even though the coupling itself is an existence finding. The first relation is a borderline case between 'replicates' and 'extends': the paper confirms Granovetter's hypothesis rather than re-running a prior study, and its own wording ('first societal-level confirmation') supports either reading; I took 'replicates' because the confirmed content is prior work's, not the paper's. Relations to references 10/24/25 (strong ties matter more in technological and biological networks) are bare numbered citations with no named work, so I left them out per the rule. The text is a pdftext extraction with mangled equations and interleaved figure captions; my quotes were chosen from stretches that survived intact and were substring-verified against the file. 2026-08-14 and 2026-08-15 schema-0.3 passes: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node. Update, 15 September 2026: VERSION: the staged text of this paper is a PRE-PUBLICATION version, not the article of record. Every live quote was tested against the published PNAS text (PMC1863470): of the 34 quotes from the main text, 17 are in the published article and 17 are not, because the wording differs. The 12 quotes from the appended methods and supplementary material are absent from that article page, which does not carry the supplementary material, so their absence is NOT DECIDABLE against it. All 46 quotes are exact to the version they were cut from. Measured by the project.

Some quotes on this page contain (cid:NN). The PDF this text was extracted from encodes 3 characters in a way that names no letter, so the extractor could not say what they were. The quotes keep them because a quote is reproduced exactly or it proves nothing — the marks are the source’s, not the tagging’s.

How to read this page. The article itself is not reproduced here — this paper is not cleared for redistribution, so what follows is the tag layer alone. The evidence sentences are withheld with the article. The table at the foot lists every tag the record carries; each row names the facet it belongs to, and the whose words column says whether the tag records the paper's own wording or the tagger's sentence about the paper. Every tag links to each other paper in the corpus carrying it. The machine-readable edition of the same thing is the TEI file beside this one, where the tags live in standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.

Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
sample-size 5 fields · communication 3 fields · standard-deviation 3 fields · bootstrap 2 fields · statistical-significance 2 fields · coupling 2 fields · and 1 more →

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 9 concept tags on this paper, 5 are grounded in a quoted sentence.

social network weak ties community structure information diffusion tie strength dyadic hypothesis global efficiency principle mobile call graph betweenness centrality weak ties bridge otherwise-separate communities, so removing them fragments the network via a percolation-like phase transition (a societal-scale confirmation of Granovetter strength-of-weak-ties) ties network communication mobile diffusion weak strong phone coupling local bridge weak ties hypothesis diffusion process bootstrap correlation correlation coefficient mean mean of p-value sample-size sample sizes standard-deviation standard deviations statistical-significance network-analysis

Method, as described: network-analysis

Legend

relation to other work	`claim_relations`	how this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim type	`claim_type`	the shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept	`concepts`	an idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tag	`content_tags`	a finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
control	`controls`	an experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation
limitation	`limitations`	what the paper says its evidence cannot support
mechanism	`mechanisms`	how the reported effect is said to come about
method	`method`	how the paper produced its evidence
phenomenon	`phenomenon`	the effect or regularity under study
sense	`senses`	a distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it
transfer	`transfers`	a method or concept carried in from another field

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610245104. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 4 · claim_type 1 · concepts 5 · content_tags 13 · controls 1 · limitations 7 · mechanisms 1 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 3 · transfers 1

This record holds no relations between concepts. A layer is empty when the tagger recorded nothing in it — which is not the same as the paper having nothing to record.

facet	tag	field	conf.	whose words
claim_type	mechanism Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_type`		the paper's words
phenomenon	tie strength and local topology in mobile communication networks Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`phenomenon`		the paper's words
method	network-analysis Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: network-analysis	`method`		the paper's words
mechanisms	mechanisms Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: weak ties bridge otherwise-separate communities, so removing them fragments the network via a percolation-like phase transition (a societal-scale confirmation of Granovetter strength-of-weak-ties)	`mechanisms[0]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The reconstructed graph covers only mobile voice calls, not the full range of interactions between people. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: every claim about social ties from this graph: THE MCG CAPTURES ONLY A SUBSET OF ALL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS, [excluding] FACE-TO-FACE, EMAIL AND LANDLINE	`limitations[0]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The reciprocity requirement used to define a link may discard genuine social ties (false negatives). Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: the link definition: the reciprocity requirement INDUCES SOME FALSE NEGATIVES, I.E. SOME LINKS CORRESPONDING TO GENUINE SOCIAL INTERACTION MAY GO UNDETECTED	`limitations[1]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The data are a single-operator sample of the underlying national call network, not the whole population network. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: any population-level reading: ALTHOUGH THE DATASET COVERS SOME SEVEN MILLION USERS, IT IS NEVERTHELESS A SAMPLE OF THE UNDERLYING PHONE CALL NETWORK - scale is not coverage	`limitations[2]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The strength of a social tie is measured as the total time two people spent on the phone. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: any claim here about the strength of social ties: strength is defined as the aggregated duration of calls between two users, after one-way calls have been eliminated by a reciprocity requirement	`limitations[3]`	1.0	the tagger's words
limitations	The network studied is a stand-in for the communication network, and the paper says so. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: conclusions drawn here about human communication: the mobile call graph is used as a proxy for the communication network between users, being skewed toward trusted interactions because people share mobile numbers only with those they trust	`limitations[4]`	1.0	the tagger's words
limitations	Three incompatible accounts of what drives tie strength were on the table before the measurement. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: the interpretation of the correlation reported here: the paper sets out a dyadic hypothesis, in which strength is independent of the surrounding network, against the strength of weak ties hypothesis, in which strength increases with friendship-circle overlap	`limitations[5]`	1.0	the tagger's words
limitations	The conclusion sits between the positions rather than choosing one. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. what this limits: the finding as support for any single theory of tie strength: the authors state it is in part driven by local network structure, in contrast with both a purely dyadic view and a global view	`limitations[6]`	1.0	the tagger's words
transfers	percolation and network analysis (robustness, phase transitions) applied to a society-scale communication network Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`transfers[0]`		the tagger's words
controls	the same spreading simulation re-run on the SAME network with every tie strength replaced by the average, giving a constant transmission probability on every link Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: the network's TOPOLOGY as the explanation of the spreading result - the graph is held fixed and only the weights are flattened, so any difference must come from the distribution of tie strengths rather than from who is connected to whom · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held	`controls[0]`	0.95	the tagger's words
concepts	tie strength Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: tie strength	`concepts[4]`		the paper's words
concepts	dyadic hypothesis Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: dyadic hypothesis	`concepts[5]`		the paper's words
concepts	global efficiency principle Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: global efficiency principle	`concepts[6]`		the paper's words
concepts	mobile call graph Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: mobile call graph	`concepts[7]`		the paper's words
concepts	betweenness centrality Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: betweenness centrality	`concepts[8]`		the paper's words
senses	tie strength - AS AGGREGATED CALL DURATION: the sociological construct is measured by total air time between two people, over links that survive a reciprocity filter, so a strong tie here means many minutes and nothing else Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[0]`	1.0	the tagger's words
senses	what determines tie strength - THREE NAMED AND INCOMPATIBLE ANSWERS: a global efficiency principle in which strengths are optimised for overall flow, a dyadic hypothesis in which strength is independent of the surrounding network, and the strength of weak ties hypothesis in which it rises with friendship-circle overlap Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[1]`	1.0	the tagger's words
senses	the mobile call graph - AS A PROXY, AND A SKEWED ONE BY DESIGN: it stands in for the communication network and is biased toward trusted interactions, because people share mobile numbers only with individuals they trust Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[2]`	1.0	the tagger's words
claim_relations	replicates → Granovetter weak-ties hypothesis (1973) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[0]`		the tagger's words
claim_relations	replicates → the strength of weak ties hypothesis (Granovetter) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[1]`		the tagger's words
claim_relations	contradicts → the dyadic hypothesis and the global efficiency principle Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[2]`		the tagger's words
claim_relations	contradicts → the received account of weak ties as the conduits of novel information (Granovetter; Csermely) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	millions — scale of the society-wide communication network studied Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Phone-communication records of millions of users let the study examine a society-wide network's local and global structure together. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Social networks are robust to the removal of strong ties but fall apart in a phase transition if weak ties are removed, and this coupling significantly slows diffusion, trapping information in communities. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	diffusion process Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: diffusion process	`content_tags.variables[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	local bridge Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: local bridge	`content_tags.definitions[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	weak ties hypothesis Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: weak ties hypothesis	`content_tags.definitions[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	bootstrap Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. about this quote: QUOTE RECOVERED FROM THE PAPER'S OWN CHARACTERS. The recorded quote was LETTERS-ONLY IDENTICAL to this stretch of the staged text but not an exact substring of it - spaces, hyphens, ligature glyphs or mathematical operators differed, so it could never anchor. This is the file's own text between the same two letters: not produced by a rule about the damage, copied out of the file. Round-trip checked (the recovered span is letters-only equal to the original) and length-checked. The text as originally recorded is kept in evidence as extracted. also in: bootstrap	`content_tags.statistics[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	correlation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: correlation	`content_tags.statistics[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	mean Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: mean	`content_tags.statistics[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	p-value Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. about this quote: DAMAGED GLYPHS IN THIS QUOTE: (cid:31). These are raw PDF font glyph indices that leaked out in place of the characters they stand for - usually a mathematical operator. The quote is verbatim to the staged text and its anchor is sound; the STAGED TEXT is what is damaged. NOT repaired: the cid-to-character mapping is defined by the font embedded in that particular PDF, so guessing it would produce a clean and unverifiable quote. Repair needs the source PDF and is a re-staging job. also in: p-value	`content_tags.statistics[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	sample-size Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: sample-size	`content_tags.statistics[4]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	standard-deviation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: standard-deviation	`content_tags.statistics[5]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	statistical-significance Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: statistical-significance	`content_tags.statistics[6]`		the tagger's words

Interpretive choices

Tags that could not be placed in the text:

none — every tag was located in the text

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