# Unified Robust Training for Graph NeuralNetworks against Label Noise

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.03414 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03414/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 23 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Mar 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Neural Message Passing for Quantum Chemistry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.01212/) (2017)
- [Deeper Insights into Graph Convolutional Networks for Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07606/) (2018)
- [Co-teaching: Robust Training of Deep Neural Networks with Extremely Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06872/) (2018)
- [Generalized Cross Entropy Loss for Training Deep Neural Networks with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.07836/) (2018)
- [Learning to Reweight Examples for Robust Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09050/) (2018)
- [Making Deep Neural Networks Robust to Label Noise: a Loss Correction Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.03683/) (2016)
- [MentorNet: Learning Data-Driven Curriculum for Very Deep Neural Networks on Corrupted Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05055/) (2017)
- [Unsupervised Label Noise Modeling and Loss Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.11238/) (2019)
- [Joint Optimization Framework for Learning with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11364/) (2018)
- [Decoupling "when to update" from "how to update"](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02613/) (2017)
- [Deep learning with noisy labels: exploring techniques and remedies in medical image analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.02911/) (2019)
- [Deep Self-Learning From Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.02160/) (2019)
- [Toward Robustness against Label Noise in Training Deep Discriminative Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.00038/) (2017)
- [Learning Graph Neural Networks with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01591/) (2019)
- [Analysis of label noise in graph-based semi-supervised learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.12966/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [A Comprehensive Survey on Trustworthy Graph Neural Networks: Privacy, Robustness, Fairness, and Explainability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08570/) (2022)
- [A Survey of Graph Neural Networks in Real world: Imbalance, Noise, Privacy and OOD Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04468/) (2024)
- [CLNode: Curriculum Learning for Node Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07258/) (2022)
- [Data-centric Graph Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04987/) (2023)
- [Noise-robust Graph Learning by Estimating and Leveraging Pairwise Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.07451/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Trustworthy Graph Learning: Reliability, Explainability, and Privacy Protection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10014/) (2022)
- [NoisyGL: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Graph Neural Networks under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04299/) (2024)
- [Robust Node Classification on Graphs: Jointly from Bayesian Label Transition and Topology-based Label Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.09779/) (2022)
- [ERASE: Error-Resilient Representation Learning on Graphs for Label Noise Tolerance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08852/) (2023)
- [Recent Advances in Reliable Deep Graph Learning: Inherent Noise, Distribution Shift, and Adversarial Attack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07114/) (2022)
- [Combating Bilateral Edge Noise for Robust Link Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01196/) (2023)
- [Mitigating Label Noise on Graph via Topological Sample Selection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01942/) (2024)
- [Noisy Node Classification by Bi-level Optimization based Multi-teacher Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.17875/) (2024)
- [Delving into Instance-Dependent Label Noise in Graph Data: A Comprehensive Study and Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12468/) (2025)
- [Bayesian Robust Graph Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.14109/) (2022)
- [Identifying and Correcting Label Noise for Robust GNNs via Influence Contradiction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17469/) (2026)
- [Resist Label Noise with PGM for Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.02116/) (2023)
- [When Noisy Labels Meet Class Imbalance on Graphs: A Graph Augmentation Method with LLM and Pseudo Label](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.18153/) (2025)
- [DREAM: Dual-Standard Semantic Homogeneity with Dynamic Optimization for Graph Learning with Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17449/) (2026)
- [PaSta: Noisy Node Classification with Partial Label Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.25365/) (2026)
- [Particle Competition and Cooperation for Robust Graph Convolutional Network Learning Under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.22053/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have achieved state-of-the-art performance for node classification on graphs. The vast majority of existing works assume that genuine node labels are always provided for training. However, there has been very little research effort on how to improve the robustness of GNNs in the presence of label noise. Learning with label noise has been primarily studied in the context of image classification, but these techniques cannot be directly applied to graph-structured data, due to two major challenges -- label sparsity and label dependency -- faced by learning on graphs. In this paper, we propose a new framework, UnionNET, for learning with noisy labels on graphs under a semi-supervised setting. Our approach provides a unified solution for robustly training GNNs and performing label correction simultaneously. The key idea is to perform label aggregation to estimate node-level class probability distributions, which are used to guide sample reweighting and label correction. Compared with existing works, UnionNET has two appealing advantages. First, it requires no extra clean supervision, or explicit estimation of the noise transition matrix. Second, a unified learning framework is proposed to robustly train GNNs in an end-to-end manner. Experimental results show that our proposed approach: (1) is effective in improving model robustness against different types and levels of label noise; (2) yields significant improvements over state-of-the-art baselines.