Link prediction in bipartite networks via effective integration of explicit and implicit relations

Link prediction in bipartite networks aims to identify or predict possible links between nodes of different types based on known network information. However, most existing studies predominantly focus on monopartite networks, neglecting the intrinsic properties unique to bipartite networks, such as the intricate high-order relationships between nodes. Both explicit relations (representing low-order information) and implicit relations (representing high-order information) play essential roles in predicting the evolution of bipartite networks, and they are indispensable and mutually reinforce each other. To fully leverage their potential in addressing the link prediction problem, we propose a novel framework from the perspective of network representation. This framework not only effectively integrates explicit relations and implicit relations, but also preserves the local and global structure of bipartite networks. Specifically, the probability of a link between two nodes of different types is determined by the linear sum of the contribution values of the mutually connected nodes in their respective common neighbors. Implicit relations are then used to preserve the local structure during the network representation. Furthermore, we implement optimization using a relaxed majorization-minimization algorithm, offering the advantage of uncovering high-quality local minima. Our proposed framework has undergone extensive testing on eight real-world datasets, and the results unequivocally demonstrate its significant superiority over state-of-the-art methods.