Network theory is finding applications in the life and social sciences for ecology, epidemiology, finance and social–ecological systems. While there are methods to generate specific types of networks, the broad literature is focused on generating
unweighted
networks. In this paper, we present a framework for generating
weighted
networks that satisfy user-defined criteria. Each criterion hierarchically defines a feature of the network and, in doing so, complements existing algorithms in the literature. We use a general example of ecological species dispersal to illustrate the method and provide open-source code for academic purposes.
Do-it-yourself networks: a novel method of generating weighted networks