Toward Data-centric Directed Graph Learning: An Entropy-driven Approach

The directed graph (digraph), as a generalization of undirected graphs, exhibits superior representation capability in modeling complex topology systems and has garnered considerable attention in recent years. Despite the notable efforts made by existing DiGraph Neural Networks (DiGNNs) to leverage directed edges, they still fail to comprehensively delve into the abundant data knowledge concealed in the digraphs. This data-level limitation results in model-level sub-optimal predictive performance and underscores the necessity of further exploring the potential correlations between the directed edges (topology) and node profiles (feature and labels) from a data-centric perspective, thereby empowering model-centric neural networks with stronger encoding capabilities. In this paper, we propose \textbf{E}ntropy-driven \textbf{D}igraph knowl\textbf{E}dge distillatio\textbf{N} (EDEN), which can serve as a data-centric digraph learning paradigm or a model-agnostic hot-and-plug data-centric Knowledge Distillation (KD) module. The core idea is to achieve data-centric ML, guided by our proposed hierarchical encoding theory for structured data. Specifically, EDEN first utilizes directed structural measurements from a topology perspective to construct a coarse-grained Hierarchical Knowledge Tree (HKT). Subsequently, EDEN quantifies the mutual information of node profiles to refine knowledge flow in the HKT, enabling data-centric KD supervision within model training. As a general framework, EDEN can also naturally extend to undirected scenarios and demonstrate satisfactory performance. In our experiments, EDEN has been widely evaluated on 14 (di)graph datasets (homophily and heterophily) and across 4 downstream tasks. The results demonstrate that EDEN attains SOTA performance and exhibits strong improvement for prevalent (Di)GNNs.

Rethinking Graph Structure Learning in the Era of LLMs

Recently, the emergence of large language models (LLMs) has prompted researchers to explore the integration of language descriptions into graphs, aiming to enhance model encoding capabilities from a data-centric perspective. This graph representation is called text-attributed graphs (TAGs). A review of prior advancements highlights that graph structure learning (GSL) is a pivotal technique for improving data utility, making it highly relevant to efficient TAG learning. However, most GSL methods are tailored for traditional graphs without textual information, underscoring the necessity of developing a new GSL paradigm. Despite clear motivations, it remains challenging: (1) How can we define a reasonable optimization objective for GSL in the era of LLMs, considering the massive parameters in LLM? (2) How can we design an efficient model architecture that enables seamless integration of LLM for this optimization objective? For Question 1, we reformulate existing GSL optimization objectives as a tree optimization framework, shifting the focus from obtaining a well-trained edge predictor to a language-aware tree sampler. For Question 2, we propose decoupled and training-free model design principles for LLM integration, shifting the focus from computation-intensive fine-tuning to more efficient inference. Based on this, we propose Large Language and Tree Assistant (LLaTA), which leverages tree-based LLM in-context learning to enhance the understanding of topology and text, enabling reliable inference and generating improved graph structure. Extensive experiments on 10 TAG datasets demonstrate that LLaTA enjoys flexibility - incorporated with any backbone; scalability - outperforms other LLM-based GSL methods in terms of running efficiency; effectiveness - achieves SOTA performance.

Toward Effective Digraph Representation Learning: A Magnetic Adaptive Propagation based Approach

The $q$-parameterized magnetic Laplacian serves as the foundation of directed graph (digraph) convolution, enabling this kind of digraph neural network (MagDG) to encode node features and structural insights by complex-domain message passing. As a generalization of undirected methods, MagDG shows superior capability in modeling intricate web-scale topology. Despite the great success achieved by existing MagDGs, limitations still exist: (1) Hand-crafted $q$: The performance of MagDGs depends on selecting an appropriate $q$-parameter to construct suitable graph propagation equations in the complex domain. This parameter tuning, driven by downstream tasks, limits model flexibility and significantly increases manual effort. (2) Coarse Message Passing: Most approaches treat all nodes with the same complex-domain propagation and aggregation rules, neglecting their unique digraph contexts. This oversight results in sub-optimal performance. To address the above issues, we propose two key techniques: (1) MAP is crafted to be a plug-and-play complex-domain propagation optimization strategy in the context of digraph learning, enabling seamless integration into any MagDG to improve predictions while enjoying high running efficiency. (2) MAP++ is a new digraph learning framework, further incorporating a learnable mechanism to achieve adaptively edge-wise propagation and node-wise aggregation in the complex domain for better performance. Extensive experiments on 12 datasets demonstrate that MAP enjoys flexibility for it can be incorporated with any MagDG, and scalability as it can deal with web-scale digraphs. MAP++ achieves SOTA predictive performance on 4 different downstream tasks.