Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Graph Foundation Models

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Hauptverfasser: Li, Haoyang, Chen, Haibo, Wang, Xin, Zhu, Wenwu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Li, Haoyang
Chen, Haibo
Wang, Xin
Zhu, Wenwu
author_facet Li, Haoyang
Chen, Haibo
Wang, Xin
Zhu, Wenwu
contents Graphs are a fundamental data structure for representing relational information in domains such as social networks, molecular systems, and knowledge graphs. However, graph learning models often suffer from limited generalization when applied beyond their training distributions. In practice, distribution shifts may arise from changes in graph structure, domain semantics, available modalities, or task formulations. To address these challenges, graph foundation models (GFMs) have recently emerged, aiming to learn general-purpose representations through large-scale pretraining across diverse graphs and tasks. In this survey, we review recent progress on GFMs from the perspective of out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization. We first discuss the main challenges posed by distribution shifts in graph learning and outline a unified problem setting. We then organize existing approaches based on whether they are designed to operate under a fixed task specification or to support generalization across heterogeneous task formulations, and summarize the corresponding OOD handling strategies and pretraining objectives. Finally, we review common evaluation protocols and discuss open directions for future research. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first survey for OOD generalization in GFMs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_21067
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Graph Foundation Models
Li, Haoyang
Chen, Haibo
Wang, Xin
Zhu, Wenwu
Machine Learning
Graphs are a fundamental data structure for representing relational information in domains such as social networks, molecular systems, and knowledge graphs. However, graph learning models often suffer from limited generalization when applied beyond their training distributions. In practice, distribution shifts may arise from changes in graph structure, domain semantics, available modalities, or task formulations. To address these challenges, graph foundation models (GFMs) have recently emerged, aiming to learn general-purpose representations through large-scale pretraining across diverse graphs and tasks. In this survey, we review recent progress on GFMs from the perspective of out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization. We first discuss the main challenges posed by distribution shifts in graph learning and outline a unified problem setting. We then organize existing approaches based on whether they are designed to operate under a fixed task specification or to support generalization across heterogeneous task formulations, and summarize the corresponding OOD handling strategies and pretraining objectives. Finally, we review common evaluation protocols and discuss open directions for future research. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first survey for OOD generalization in GFMs.
title Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Graph Foundation Models
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.21067