# Empowering GNNs for Domain Adaptation via Denoising Target Graph

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06236 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.06236/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 47 of its 61 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Dec 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 47)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Domain-Adversarial Training of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.07818/) (2015)
- [Fast Graph Representation Learning with PyTorch Geometric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.02428/) (2019)
- [Variational Graph Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07308/) (2016)
- [Link Prediction Based on Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.09691/) (2018)
- [Graph Neural Networks for Social Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.07243/) (2019)
- [Adaptive Universal Generalized PageRank Graph Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07988/) (2020)
- [Temporal Graph Networks for Deep Learning on Dynamic Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10637/) (2020)
- [DeepGCNs: Can GCNs Go as Deep as CNNs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03751/) (2019)
- [Graph Neural Networks in Recommender Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02260/) (2020)
- [Graph U-Nets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05178/) (2019)
- [Principal Neighbourhood Aggregation for Graph Nets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05718/) (2020)
- [A Survey of Unsupervised Deep Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02849/) (2018)
- [OGB-LSC: A Large-Scale Challenge for Machine Learning on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.09430/) (2021)
- [SIGN: Scalable Inception Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11198/) (2020)
- [Deep Graph Library: A Graph-Centric, Highly-Performant Package for Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01315/) (2019)
- [Combining Label Propagation and Simple Models Out-performs Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13993/) (2020)
- [Self-Supervised Learning of Graph Neural Networks: A Unified Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.10757/) (2021)
- [Domain Adaptation for Visual Applications: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.05374/) (2017)
- [Domain Adaptation with Conditional Distribution Matching and Generalized Label Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.04475/) (2020)
- [Unbalanced minibatch Optimal Transport; applications to Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03606/) (2021)
- [A Review of Single-Source Deep Unsupervised Visual Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.00155/) (2020)
- [Shift-Robust GNNs: Overcoming the Limitations of Localized Graph Training Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.01099/) (2021)
- [A Closer Look at Smoothness in Domain Adversarial Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08213/) (2022)
- [Self-training Avoids Using Spurious Features Under Domain Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10032/) (2020)
- [Graph Transfer Learning via Adversarial Domain Adaptation with Graph Convolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01541/) (2019)
- [Cross-Domain Gradient Discrepancy Minimization for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04151/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We explore the node classification task in the context of graph domain adaptation, which uses both source and target graph structures along with source labels to enhance the generalization capabilities of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) on target graphs. Structure domain shifts frequently occur, especially when graph data are collected at different times or from varying areas, resulting in poor performance of GNNs on target graphs. Surprisingly, we find that simply incorporating an auxiliary loss function for denoising graph edges on target graphs can be extremely effective in enhancing GNN performance on target graphs. Based on this insight, we propose our framework, GraphDeT, a framework that integrates this auxiliary edge task into GNN training for node classification under domain adaptation. Our theoretical analysis connects this auxiliary edge task to the graph generalization bound with -distance, demonstrating such auxiliary task can imposes a constraint which tightens the bound and thereby improves generalization. The experimental results demonstrate superior performance compared to the existing baselines in handling both time and regional domain graph shifts.