Towards Explainable RAG - Interpreting the Influence of Retrieved Passages on Generation: From Benchmark Results to External Validity

Authors

  • Zach Webb Author
  • Abram Patterson Author
  • Brooks Jenkins Author

Keywords:

reliable retrieval-augmented generation, benchmark transfer and external validity, evidence synthesis, reproducibility, research evaluation

Abstract

Benchmark performance is useful only when the evaluation setting represents the populations and operating conditions to which the result will be transferred. This structured evidence review evaluates "Towards Explainable RAG: Interpreting the Influence of Retrieved Passages on Generation" alongside nine author-disjoint, topically matched publications in reliable retrieval-augmented generation. It compares construct definitions, evaluation choices, operating assumptions, and reported limitations instead of treating bibliographic similarity as empirical equivalence. Viewed through benchmark transfer and external validity, the map separates claims supported by the available record from questions that still require full-text extraction, replication, or new experiments. The synthesis is interpretive rather than meta-analytic and therefore does not present a pooled effect estimate or a new causal result. The resulting agenda prioritizes cross-site replication, explicit eligibility criteria, and reporting of performance across materially different settings.

References

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Published

2026-08-27

Issue

Vol. 1 (2026): Archive

Section

Review Article

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Machine Intelligence & Responsible Systems

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.