GraphECC: Enhancing GraphSMOTE with enhanced complementary classifier

Node classification in graph learning faces significant challenges due to imbalanced data, particularly for under-represented samples from minority classes. To address this issue, existing methods often rely on synthetic minority over-sampling techniques, introducing additional complexity during model training. In light of the challenges faced, we introduce GraphECC, an innovative approach that addresses numerical anomalies in large-scale datasets by supplanting the traditional CE loss function with an Enhanced Complementary Classifier (ECC) loss function’a novel modification to the CCE loss. This alteration ensures computational stability and mitigates potential numerical anomalies by incorporating a slight offset in the denominator during the computation of the complementary probability distribution. In this paper, we present a novel training paradigm, the Enhanced Complementary Classifier (ECC), which offers “imbalance defense for free” without the need for extra procedures to improve node classification accuracy.The ECC approach optimizes model probabilities for the ground-truth class, akin to the cross-entropy method. Additionally, it effectively neutralizes probabilities associated with incorrect classes through a “guided” term, achieving a balanced trade-off between the two aspects. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method not only enhances model robustness but also surpasses the widely used cross-entropy training objective.Moreover, we demonstrate the versatility of our method by seamlessly integrating it with various well-known adversarial training techniques, resulting in significant gains in robustness. Notably, our approach represents a breakthrough, as it enhances model robustness without compromising performance, distinguishing it from previous attempts.The code for GraphECC can be accessed from the following link:https://github.com/12chen20/GraphECC.