Influence maximization in multilayer networks based on adaptive coupling degree

Influence maximization (IM) aims to identify highly influential nodes to maximize influence spread in a network. Previous research on the IM problem has mainly concentrated on single-layer networks, disregarding the comprehension of the coupling structure that is inherent in multilayer networks. To solve the IM problem in multilayer networks, we first propose an independent cascade model (MIC) in a multilayer network where propagation occurs simultaneously across different layers. Consequently, a heuristic algorithm, i.e., adaptive coupling degree (ACD), which selects seed nodes with high spread influence and a low degree of overlap of influence, is proposed to identify seed nodes for IM in a multilayer network. By conducting experiments based on MIC, we have demonstrated that our proposed method is superior to the baselines in terms of influence spread and time cost in six synthetic and four real-world multilayer networks.