NOCL: Node-Oriented Conceptualization LLM for Graph Tasks without Message Passing

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Li, Wei, Lan, Mengcheng, Xu, Jiaxing, Ke, Yiping
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Li, Wei
Lan, Mengcheng
Xu, Jiaxing
Ke, Yiping
author_facet Li, Wei
Lan, Mengcheng
Xu, Jiaxing
Ke, Yiping
contents Graphs are essential for modeling complex interactions across domains such as social networks, biology, and recommendation systems. Traditional Graph Neural Networks, particularly Message Passing Neural Networks (MPNNs), rely heavily on supervised learning, limiting their generalization and applicability in label-scarce scenarios. Recent self-supervised approaches still require labeled fine-tuning, limiting their effectiveness in zero-shot scenarios. Meanwhile, Large Language Models (LLMs) excel in natural language tasks but face significant challenges when applied to graphs, including preserving reasoning abilities, managing extensive token lengths from rich node attributes, and being limited to textual-attributed graphs (TAGs) and a single level task. To overcome these limitations, we propose the Node-Oriented Conceptualization LLM (NOCL), a novel framework that leverages two core techniques: 1) node description, which converts heterogeneous node attributes into structured natural language, extending LLM from TAGs to non-TAGs; 2) node concept, which encodes node descriptions into compact semantic embeddings using pretrained language models, significantly reducing token lengths by up to 93.9% compared to directly using node descriptions. Additionally, our NOCL employs graph representation descriptors to unify graph tasks at various levels into a shared, language-based query format, paving a new direction for Graph Foundation Models. Experimental results validate NOCL's competitive supervised performance relative to traditional MPNNs and hybrid LLM-MPNN methods and demonstrate superior generalization in zero-shot settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_10014
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle NOCL: Node-Oriented Conceptualization LLM for Graph Tasks without Message Passing
Li, Wei
Lan, Mengcheng
Xu, Jiaxing
Ke, Yiping
Machine Learning
Graphs are essential for modeling complex interactions across domains such as social networks, biology, and recommendation systems. Traditional Graph Neural Networks, particularly Message Passing Neural Networks (MPNNs), rely heavily on supervised learning, limiting their generalization and applicability in label-scarce scenarios. Recent self-supervised approaches still require labeled fine-tuning, limiting their effectiveness in zero-shot scenarios. Meanwhile, Large Language Models (LLMs) excel in natural language tasks but face significant challenges when applied to graphs, including preserving reasoning abilities, managing extensive token lengths from rich node attributes, and being limited to textual-attributed graphs (TAGs) and a single level task. To overcome these limitations, we propose the Node-Oriented Conceptualization LLM (NOCL), a novel framework that leverages two core techniques: 1) node description, which converts heterogeneous node attributes into structured natural language, extending LLM from TAGs to non-TAGs; 2) node concept, which encodes node descriptions into compact semantic embeddings using pretrained language models, significantly reducing token lengths by up to 93.9% compared to directly using node descriptions. Additionally, our NOCL employs graph representation descriptors to unify graph tasks at various levels into a shared, language-based query format, paving a new direction for Graph Foundation Models. Experimental results validate NOCL's competitive supervised performance relative to traditional MPNNs and hybrid LLM-MPNN methods and demonstrate superior generalization in zero-shot settings.
title NOCL: Node-Oriented Conceptualization LLM for Graph Tasks without Message Passing
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10014