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Simple network models that focus only on graph topology or, at best, basic interactions are often insufficient to capture all the aspects of a dynamic complex system. In this thesis, I explore those limitations, and some concrete methods of resolving them. I argue that, in order to succeed at interpreting and influencing complex systems, we need to take into account  slightly more complex parts, interactions and information flows in our models.This thesis supports that affirmation with five actual examples of applied research. Each study case takes a closer look at the dynamic of the studied problem and complements the network model with techniques from information theory, machine learning, discrete maths and/or ergodic theory. By using these techniques to study the concrete dynamics of each system, we could obtain interesting new information. Concretely, we could get better models of network walks that are used on everyday applications like journal ranking. We could also uncover asymptotic characteristics of an agent-based information propagation model which we think is the basis for things like belief propaga-tion or technology adoption on society. And finally, we could spot associations between antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial populations, a problem which is becoming more serious every day.

Complex systems play an essential role in our daily lives. These systems consist of many connected components that interact with each other. Consider, for example, society with billions of collaborating individuals, the stock market with numerous buyers and sellers that trade equities, or communication infrastructures with billions of phones, computers and satellites.

The key to understanding complex systems is to understand the interaction patterns between their components - their networks. To create the network, we need data from the system and a model that organizes the given data in a network representation. Today's increasing availability of data and improved computational capacity for analyzing networks have created great opportunities for the network approach to further prosper. However, increasingly rich data also gives rise to new challenges that question the effectiveness of the conventional approach to modeling data as a network. In this thesis, we explore those challenges and provide methods for simplifying and highlighting important interaction patterns in network models that make use of richer data.

Using data from real-world complex systems, we first show that conventional network modeling can provide valuable insights about the function of the underlying system. To explore the impact of using richer data in the network representation, we then expand the analysis for higher-order models of networks and show why we need to go beyond conventional models when there is data that allows us to do so. In addition, we also present a new framework for higher-order network modeling and analysis. We find that network models that capture richer data can provide more accurate representations of many real-world complex systems.