Towards Explainable RAG - Interpreting the Influence of Retrieved Passages on Generation: Attributing Performance to Model Components

Authors

  • Felix Wheeler Author
  • Graham Perkins Author
  • Heath Fleming Author

Keywords:

reliable retrieval-augmented generation, ablation logic and component attribution, evidence synthesis, reproducibility, research evaluation

Abstract

Component-level evidence is needed to distinguish genuine contributions from gains produced by the surrounding pipeline. 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 ablation logic and component attribution, 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 calls for controlled ablations, interaction tests, and reporting of uncertainty around each component's incremental contribution.

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.