Influence blocking maximization on networks: Models, methods and applications

Due to the continuous emergence of various social and trade networks, network influence analysis has aroused great interest of the researchers. Based on different influence propagation models, many new models and methods for influence maximization on networks have been proposed. As an extension and expansion of the traditional influence maximization problem, influence blocking maximization has become a hotspot of research, and has been widely applied in many areas such as physics, computer science and epidemiology. In recent years, various methods for influence blocking maximization problem have been reported. However, we still lack a comprehensive review to systematically analyze the methodological and theoretical advances in influence blocking maximization problem from the aspects of social networks influence analysis. This review aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive survey and analysis of the theory and applications of influence blocking maximization. Not only it advances the theoretical understanding of the influence maximization problem, but will be a point of reference for future researches.