2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/24941The clustering coefficient quantifies how well connected are the neighbors of a vertex in a graph. In real networks it decreases with the vertex degree, which has been taken as a signature of the network hierarchical structure. Here we show that this signature of hierarchical structure is a consequence of degree correlation biases in the clustering coefficient definition. We introduce a new definition in which the degree correlation biases are filtered out, and provide evidence that in real networks the clustering coefficient is constant or decays logarithmically with vertex degree.4 pages, 3 figuresStatistical MechanicsDisordered Systems and Neural Networkstext