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This has the effect of limiting minority nodes\u2019 access to information. We present the results of an empirical study on the equality of information access in network models with different growth mechanisms and spreading processes. For growth mechanisms, we focus on the majority\/minority dichotomy, homophily, preferential attachment, and diversity. For spreading processes, we investigate simple versus\u00a0complex contagions, different transmission rates within and between groups, and various seeding conditions. We observe two phenomena. First, information access equality is a complex interplay between network structures and the spreading processes. Second, there is a trade-off between equality and efficiency of information access under certain circumstances (e.g., when inter-group edges are low and information transmits asymmetrically). Our findings can be used to make recommendations for mechanistic design of social networks with information access equality.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s41109-022-00494-8","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,2]],"date-time":"2022-08-02T11:18:11Z","timestamp":1659439091000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Information access equality on generative models of complex networks"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Xindi","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Onur","family":"Varol","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tina","family":"Eliassi-Rad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"494_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Adamic LA, Glance N (2005) The political blogosphere and the 2004 US election: Divided they blog. 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