Software for Dataset-wide XAI: From Local Explanations to Global Insights with Zennit, CoRelAy, and ViRelAy
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Abstract (arXiv)
Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are known to be strong predictors, but their prediction strategies can rarely be understood. With recent advances in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), approaches are available to explore the reasoning behind those complex models' predictions. Among post-hoc attribution methods, Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP) shows high performance. For deeper quantitative analysis, manual approaches exist, but without the right tools they are unnecessarily labor intensive. In this software paper, we introduce three software packages targeted at scientists to explore model reasoning using attribution approaches and beyond: (1) Zennit - a highly customizable and intuitive attribution framework implementing LRP and related approaches in PyTorch, (2) CoRelAy - a framework to easily and quickly construct quantitative analysis pipelines for dataset-wide analyses of explanations, and (3) ViRelAy - a web-application to interactively explore data, attributions, and analysis results. With this, we provide a standardized implementation solution for XAI, to contribute towards more reproducibility in our field.
Key facts. Cited by 53 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 44 of its 120 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Jun 2021.
Builds on
44 of 120 references.
References · 44
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- 2019Towards Best Practice in Explaining Neural Network Decisions with LRPcited by 70
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Citing papers per year: 2022: 8; 2023: 12; 2024: 11; 2025: 15; 2026: 7.
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- 2023XAI-based Comparison of Input Representations for Audio Event Classificationcited by 3
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- 2026From Clever Hans to Scientific Discovery: Interpreting EEG Foundational Transformers with LRP12 May 2026
- 2026No Single Metric Tells the Whole Story: A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Framework for Uncertainty Attributions25 Mar 2026
- 2026X-SYS: A Reference Architecture for Interactive Explanation Systems13 Feb 2026
- 2026Distilling Lightweight Domain Experts from Large ML Models by Identifying Relevant Subspaces9 Jan 2026
- 2025Interpretable Plant Leaf Disease Detection Using Attention-Enhanced CNN19 Dec 2025
- 2025Preserving Marker Specificity with Lightweight Channel-Independent Representation Learning17 Dec 2025
- 2025Always Keep Your Promises: A Model-Agnostic Attribution Algorithm for Neural Networks7 Dec 2025
- 2025Attention Trajectories as a Diagnostic Axis for Deep Reinforcement Learning25 Nov 2025
- 2025Beyond saliency: enhancing explanation of speech emotion recognition with expert-referenced acoustic cues12 Nov 2025
38 more
- 2025LLEXICORP: End-user Explainability of Convolutional Neural Networks4 Nov 2025
- 2025FaCT: Faithful Concept Traces for Explaining Neural Network Decisions29 Oct 2025
- 2025TDHook: A Lightweight Framework for Interpretability29 Sep 2025
- 2025Learning golf swing signatures from a single wrist-worn inertial sensor20 Jun 2025
- 2025Attribution-Guided Pruning for Insight and Control: Circuit Discovery and Targeted Correction in Small-scale LLMs16 Jun 2025
- 2025Relevance-driven Input Dropout: an Explanation-guided Regularization Technique27 May 2025
- 2025PnPXAI: A Universal XAI Framework Providing Automatic Explanations Across Diverse Modalities and Models15 May 2025
- 2025Pairwise Matching of Intermediate Representations for Fine-grained Explainability28 Mar 2025
- 2025Post-Hoc Concept Disentanglement: From Correlated to Isolated Concept Representations7 Mar 2025
- 2025A Close Look at Decomposition-based XAI-Methods for Transformer Language Models21 Feb 2025
- 2024BEExAI: Benchmark to Evaluate Explainable AI29 Jul 2024
- 2024Challenges in explaining deep learning models for data with biological variation14 Jun 2024
- 2024Locally Testing Model Detections for Semantic Global Concepts27 May 2024
- 2024Towards Natural Machine Unlearning24 May 2024
- 2024A Fresh Look at Sanity Checks for Saliency Maps3 May 2024
- 2024Sparse Explanations of Neural Networks Using Pruned Layer-Wise Relevance Propagation22 Apr 2024
- 2024Reactive Model Correction: Mitigating Harm to Task-Relevant Features via Conditional Bias Suppression15 Apr 2024
- 2024Sparse, Efficient and Explainable Data Attribution with DualXDA19 Feb 2024
- 2024AttnLRP: Attention-Aware Layer-Wise Relevance Propagation for Transformers8 Feb 2024
- 2024Decoupling Pixel Flipping and Occlusion Strategy for Consistent XAI Benchmarks12 Jan 2024
- 2024Sanity Checks Revisited: An Exploration to Repair the Model Parameter Randomisation Test12 Jan 2024
- 2023Prototypical Self-Explainable Models Without Re-training13 Dec 2023
- 2023From Classification to Segmentation with Explainable AI: A Study on Crack Detection and Growth Monitoring20 Sep 2023
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- 2023Interpreting Deep Neural Networks with the Package innsight19 Jun 2023
- 2023Explaining Deep Learning for ECG Analysis: Building Blocks for Auditing and Knowledge Discovery26 May 2023
- 2023XAI-based Comparison of Input Representations for Audio Event Classification27 Apr 2023
- 2023Robustness of Visual Explanations to Common Data Augmentation18 Apr 2023
- 2023Bridging the Gap: Gaze Events as Interpretable Concepts to Explain Deep Neural Sequence Models12 Apr 2023
- 2023Preemptively Pruning Clever-Hans Strategies in Deep Neural Networks12 Apr 2023
- 2023Multi-Channel Time-Series Person and Soft-Biometric Identification4 Apr 2023
- 2023Better Understanding Differences in Attribution Methods via Systematic Evaluations21 Mar 2023
- 2023Explainable AI for Time Series via Virtual Inspection Layers11 Mar 2023
- 2022Disentangled Explanations of Neural Network Predictions by Finding Relevant Subspaces30 Dec 2022
- 2022Optimizing Explanations by Network Canonization and Hyperparameter Search30 Nov 2022
- 2022Revealing Hidden Context Bias in Segmentation and Object Detection through Concept-specific Explanations21 Nov 2022
- 2022Explanation-based Counterfactual Retraining(XCR): A Calibration Method for Black-box Models22 Jun 2022
- 2022Explain to Not Forget: Defending Against Catastrophic Forgetting with XAI4 May 2022
50 newest of 53 All 53 (JSON)
- 2024Towards Natural Machine Unlearningcited by 11
- 2024Towards Natural Machine Unlearning24 May 2024
- 2022Beyond Explaining: Opportunities and Challenges of XAI-Based Model Improvementcited by 48
- 2024Decoupling Pixel Flipping and Occlusion Strategy for Consistent XAI Benchmarkscited by 28
- 2022Disentangled Explanations of Neural Network Predictions by Finding Relevant Subspacescited by 25
- 2022Navigating Neural Space: Revisiting Concept Activation Vectors to Overcome Directional Divergencecited by 24
- 2023Explainable AI for Time Series via Virtual Inspection Layerscited by 23
- 2022Revealing Hidden Context Bias in Segmentation and Object Detection through Concept-specific Explanationscited by 17
- 2023Explaining Deep Learning for ECG Analysis: Building Blocks for Auditing and Knowledge Discoverycited by 15
- 2022Optimizing Explanations by Network Canonization and Hyperparameter Searchcited by 11
- 2024BEExAI: Benchmark to Evaluate Explainable AIcited by 11
- 2025A Close Look at Decomposition-based XAI-Methods for Transformer Language Modelscited by 10
- 2023Preemptively Pruning Clever-Hans Strategies in Deep Neural Networkscited by 9
- 2024Sanity Checks Revisited: An Exploration to Repair the Model Parameter Randomisation Testcited by 9
12 most cited of 51 All 51 (JSON)
- 2026ResLRP: The Role of Residual Cancellation in Attribution Instability in Vision Transformers15 Sep 2026
- 2026FedXDS: Leveraging Model Attribution Methods to counteract Data Heterogeneity in Federated Learning30 Jun 2026
- 2026Does Aurora Encode Atmospheric Structure? Latent Regime Analysis and Attribution24 Jun 2026
- 2026From Clever Hans to Scientific Discovery: Interpreting EEG Foundational Transformers with LRP12 May 2026
- 2026No Single Metric Tells the Whole Story: A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Framework for Uncertainty Attributions25 Mar 2026
- 2026X-SYS: A Reference Architecture for Interactive Explanation Systems13 Feb 2026
- 2026Distilling Lightweight Domain Experts from Large ML Models by Identifying Relevant Subspaces9 Jan 2026
- 2025Interpretable Plant Leaf Disease Detection Using Attention-Enhanced CNN19 Dec 2025
- 2025Preserving Marker Specificity with Lightweight Channel-Independent Representation Learning17 Dec 2025
- 2025Always Keep Your Promises: A Model-Agnostic Attribution Algorithm for Neural Networks7 Dec 2025
- 2025Attention Trajectories as a Diagnostic Axis for Deep Reinforcement Learning25 Nov 2025
- 2025Beyond saliency: enhancing explanation of speech emotion recognition with expert-referenced acoustic cues12 Nov 2025
12 newest of 51 All 51 (JSON)