Community detection for weighted bipartite networks

The bipartite network appears in various areas, such as biology, sociology, physiology, and computer science. Rohe et al. (2016) proposed Stochastic co-Blockmodel (ScBM) as a tool for detecting community structure of binary bipartite graph data in network studies. However, ScBM completely ignores edge weight and is unable to explain the block structures of a weighted bipartite network. Here, to model a weighted bipartite network, we introduce a Bipartite Distribution-Free model by releasing ScBM’s distribution restriction. We also build an extension of the proposed model by considering the variation of node degree. Our models do not require a specific distribution on generating elements of the adjacency matrix but only a block structure on the expected adjacency matrix. Spectral algorithms with theoretical guarantees on the consistent estimation of node labels are presented to identify communities. Our proposed methods are illustrated by simulated and empirical examples.