Deng, X., Wang, X. and Stevenson, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-9483-6006 (Accepted: 2025) The next phase of scientific fact-checking: advanced evidence retrieval from complex structured academic papers. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Innovative Concepts and Theories in Information Retrieval. The 15th International Conference on Innovative Concepts and Theories in Information Retrieval, 18 Jul 2025, Padua, Italy. ACM ISBN 9798400718618 (In Press)
Abstract
Scientific fact-checking aims to determine the veracity of scientific claims by retrieving and analysing evidence from research literature. The problem is inherently more complex than general fact-checking since it must accommodate the evolving nature of scientific knowledge, the structural complexity of academic literature and the challenges posed by long-form, multimodal scientific expression. However, existing approaches focus on simplified versions of the problem based on small-scale datasets consisting of abstracts rather than full papers, thereby avoiding the distinct challenges associated with processing complete documents. This paper examines the limitations of current scientific fact-checking systems and reveals the many potential features and resources that could be exploited to advance their performance. It identifies key research challenges within evidence retrieval, including (1) evidence-driven retrieval that addresses semantic limitations and topic imbalance (2) time-aware evidence retrieval with citation tracking to mitigate outdated information, (3) structured document parsing to leverage long-range context, (4) handling complex scientific expressions, including tables, figures, and domain-specific terminology and (5) assessing the credibility of scientific literature. Preliminary experiments were conducted to substantiate these challenges and identify potential solutions. This perspective paper aims to advance scientific fact-checking with a specialised IR system tailored for real-world applications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Evidence retrieval; Scientific fact-checking |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Jul 2025 09:56 |
Last Modified: | 01 Jul 2025 09:56 |
Status: | In Press |
Publisher: | ACM |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1145/3731120.3744614 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:228448 |
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