word2vec, node2vec, graph2vec, X2vec: Towards a Theory of Vector Embeddings of Structured Data

Summary: Surveys practical embedding methods for graphs and relational structures and frames the field as lacking foundational theory. Proposes two formal approaches to characterize expressivity and limitations of vector embeddings, links existing techniques to them, and suggests future directions. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: 1804
Venue: PODS
Year: 2020
Pagerank: 0.00010852334
Overall Rank: 1,411 | 90.33%
DOI: 10.1145/3375395.3387641

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Martin Grohe (RWTH Aachen University)

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{grohe_pods20,
        address = {New York, NY, USA},
        series = {{PODS} '20},
        title = {{word2vec, node2vec, graph2vec, X2vec: Towards a Theory of Vector Embeddings of Structured Data}},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3375395.3387641},
        doi = {10.1145/3375395.3387641},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} Symposium on {Principles} of {Database} {Systems}},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        author = {Grohe, Martin},
        year = {2020}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 13 of 13 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
286	Milvus: A Purpose-Built Vector Data Management System	2021	SIGMOD	0.00022357911
5,608	Big Graphs: Challenges and Opportunities	2022	VLDB	6.1514145e-05
5,893	A Query Language Perspective on Graph Learning	2023	PODS	6.0486927e-05
6,820	DIGRA: A Dynamic Graph Indexing for Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search with Range Filter	2025	SIGMOD	5.7632132e-05
7,259	Efficient Dynamic Indexing for Range Filtered Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search	2025	SIGMOD	5.6613405e-05
8,782	Filtered Vector Search: State-of-the-art and Research Opportunities	2025	VLDB	5.374155e-05
9,004	LightRW: FPGA Accelerated Graph Dynamic Random Walks	2023	SIGMOD	5.3343985e-05
9,554	Explaining GNN-based Recommendations in Logic	2025	VLDB	5.2528121e-05
10,242	FAVOR: Efficient Filter-Agnostic Vector ANNS Based on Selectivity-Aware Exclusion Distances	2026	SIGMOD	5.093636e-05
10,350	Building Stateless Serverless Vector DBs via Block-based Data Partitioning	2026	SIGMOD	5.093636e-05
11,304	Graph Association Analyses for Early Drug Discovery	2024	VLDB	5.093636e-05
11,410	Enriching Recommendation Models with Logic Conditions	2023	SIGMOD	5.093636e-05
11,505	Quasi-stable Coloring for Graph Compression	2023	VLDB	5.093636e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 1 of 1 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
2,264	Exploiting Latent Information in Relational Databases via Word Embedding and Application to Degrees of Disclosure	2019	CIDR	8.8419988e-05

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