  Tremendous advances have been made in our understanding of the properties and
evolution of complex networks. These advances were initially driven by
information-poor empirical networks and theoretical analysis of unweighted and
undirected graphs. Recently, information-rich empirical data complex networks
supported the development of more sophisticated models that include edge
directionality and weight properties, and multiple layers. Many studies still
focus on unweighted undirected description of networks, prompting an essential
question: how to identify when a model is simpler than it must be? Here, we
argue that the presence of centrality anomalies in complex networks is a result
of model over-simplification. Specifically, we investigate the well-known
anomaly in betweenness centrality for transportation networks, according to
which highly connected nodes are not necessarily the most central. Using a
broad class of network models with weights and spatial constraints and four
large data sets of transportation networks, we show that the unweighted
projection of the structure of these networks can exhibit a significant
fraction of anomalous nodes compared to a random null model. However, the
weighted projection of these networks, compared with an appropriated null
model, significantly reduces the fraction of anomalies observed, suggesting
that centrality anomalies are a symptom of model over-simplification. Because
lack of information-rich data is a common challenge when dealing with complex
networks and can cause anomalies that misestimate the role of nodes in the
system, we argue that sufficiently sophisticated models be used when anomalies
are detected.
