Supervised-learning link recommendation in the DBLP co-authoring network

Currently, link recommendation has gained more attention as networked data becomes abundant in several scenarios. However, existing methods for this task have failed in considering solely the structure of dynamic networks for improved performance and accuracy. Hence, in this work, we present a methodology based on the use of multiple topological metrics in order to achieve prospective link recommendations considering time constraints. The combination of such metrics is used as input to binary classification algorithms that state whether two pairs of authors will/should define a link. We experimented with five algorithms, what allowed us to reach high rates of accuracy and to evaluate the different classification paradigms. Our results also demonstrated that time parameters and the activity profile of the authors can significantly influence the recommendation. In the context of DBLP, this research is strategic as it may assist on identifying potential partners, research groups with similar themes, research competition (absence of obvious links), and related work.