# Explainable Claim Verification via Knowledge-Grounded Reasoning with Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05253 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.05253/

## Key facts

- Cited by 37 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 46 of its 76 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Oct 2023.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/lr/reasoning-benchmarks-and-evaluation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13971/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [PaLM: Scaling Language Modeling with Pathways](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02311/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [OPT: Open Pre-trained Transformer Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01068/) (2022)
- [Survey of Hallucination in Natural Language Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03629/) (2022)
- [Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10625/) (2022)
- [FEVER: a large-scale dataset for Fact Extraction and VERification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.05355/) (2018)
- [Measuring and Narrowing the Compositionality Gap in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03350/) (2022)
- [Interleaving Retrieval with Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Knowledge-Intensive Multi-Step Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10509/) (2022)
- [Show Your Work: Scratchpads for Intermediate Computation with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00114/) (2021)
- [PAL: Program-aided Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10435/) (2022)
- [PlanBench: An Extensible Benchmark for Evaluating Large Language Models on Planning and Reasoning about Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10498/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Automated Fact-Checking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.11896/) (2021)
- [Measuring and Improving Consistency in Pretrained Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.01017/) (2021)
- [Check Your Facts and Try Again: Improving Large Language Models with External Knowledge and Automated Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12813/) (2023)
- [Selection-Inference: Exploiting Large Language Models for Interpretable Logical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09712/) (2022)
- [Explainable Automated Fact-Checking for Public Health Claims](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.09926/) (2020)
- [HoVer: A Dataset for Many-Hop Fact Extraction And Claim Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.03088/) (2020)
- [FEVEROUS: Fact Extraction and VERification Over Unstructured and Structured information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05707/) (2021)
- [Fact-Checking Complex Claims with Program-Guided Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12744/) (2023)
- [Generating Fact Checking Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05773/) (2020)
- [Solving Math Word Problems by Combining Language Models With Symbolic Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09102/) (2023)
- [Multi-hop Reading Comprehension through Question Decomposition and Rescoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02916/) (2019)
- [Fine-grained Fact Verification with Kernel Graph Attention Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.09796/) (2019)
- [DeClarE: Debunking Fake News and False Claims using Evidence-Aware Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.06416/) (2018)
- [GEAR: Graph-based Evidence Aggregating and Reasoning for Fact Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.01843/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [Large Language Models Hallucination: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06265/) (2025)
- [Argumentative Large Language Models for Explainable and Contestable Claim Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02079/) (2024)
- [Retrieval Augmented Fact Verification by Synthesizing Contrastive Arguments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09815/) (2024)
- [Explainable Generative AI (GenXAI): A Survey, Conceptualization, and Research Agenda](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09554/) (2024)
- [Pelican: Correcting Hallucination in Vision-LLMs via Claim Decomposition and Program of Thought Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02352/) (2024)
- [Web Retrieval Agents for Evidence-Based Misinformation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00009/) (2024)
- [Piecing It All Together: Verifying Multi-Hop Multimodal Claims](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.09547/) (2024)
- [ADMIT: Few-shot Knowledge Poisoning Attacks on RAG-based Fact Checking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13842/) (2025)
- [Retrieval- and Argumentation-Enhanced Multi-Agent LLMs for Judgmental Forecasting (Extended Version with Supplementary Material)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24303/) (2025)
- [Reasoning-CV: Fine-tuning Powerful Reasoning LLMs for Knowledge-Assisted Claim Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12348/) (2025)
- [CMIE: Combining MLLM Insights with External Evidence for Explainable Out-of-Context Misinformation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23449/) (2025)
- [Towards Automated Fact-Checking of Real-World Claims: Exploring Task Formulation and Assessment with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08909/) (2025)
- [MPCG: Multi-Round Persona-Conditioned Generation for Modeling the Evolution of Misinformation with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16564/) (2025)
- [TabVer: Tabular Fact Verification with Natural Logic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01093/) (2024)
- [STRIVE: Structured Reasoning for Self-Improvement in Claim Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11959/) (2025)
- [Towards Comprehensive Stage-wise Benchmarking of Large Language Models in Fact-Checking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.02669/) (2026)
- [Context Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11160/) (2024)
- [Evidence-Grounded Multimodal Misinformation Detection with Attention-Based GNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18221/) (2025)
- [Fact in Fragments: Deconstructing Complex Claims via LLM-based Atomic Fact Extraction and Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07446/) (2025)
- [IRIS: An Iterative and Integrated Framework for Verifiable Causal Discovery in the Absence of Tabular Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.09217/) (2025)
- [CRAVE: A Conflicting Reasoning Approach for Explainable Claim Verification Using LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14905/) (2025)
- [Generating Grounded Responses to Counter Misinformation via Learning Efficient Fine-Grained Critiques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05924/) (2025)
- [LRCTI: A Large Language Model-Based Framework for Multi-Step Evidence Retrieval and Reasoning in Cyber Threat Intelligence Credibility Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11310/) (2025)
- [Multi-Step Knowledge Interaction Analysis via Rank-2 Subspace Disentanglement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.01706/) (2025)
- [Position: Logical Soundness is not a Reliable Criterion for Neurosymbolic Fact-Checking with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04177/) (2026)
- [Fact-checking based fake news detection: a review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.01717/) (2024)
- [Mining the Explainability and Generalization: Fact Verification Based on Self-Instruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12579/) (2024)
- [Bridging Natural Language and ASP: A Hybrid Approach Using LLMs and AMR Parsing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.08715/) (2025)
- [Leveraging Evidence-Guided LLMs to Enhance Trustworthy Depression Diagnosis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17947/) (2025)
- [Fact-Checking with Large Language Models via Probabilistic Certainty and Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.02574/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Claim verification plays a crucial role in combating misinformation. While existing works on claim verification have shown promising results, a crucial piece of the puzzle that remains unsolved is to understand how to verify claims without relying on human-annotated data, which is expensive to create at a large scale. Additionally, it is important for models to provide comprehensive explanations that can justify their decisions and assist human fact-checkers. This paper presents First-Order-Logic-Guided Knowledge-Grounded (FOLK) Reasoning that can verify complex claims and generate explanations without the need for annotated evidence using Large Language Models (LLMs). FOLK leverages the in-context learning ability of LLMs to translate the claim into a First-Order-Logic (FOL) clause consisting of predicates, each corresponding to a sub-claim that needs to be verified. Then, FOLK performs FOL-Guided reasoning over a set of knowledge-grounded question-and-answer pairs to make veracity predictions and generate explanations to justify its decision-making process. This process makes our model highly explanatory, providing clear explanations of its reasoning process in human-readable form. Our experiment results indicate that FOLK outperforms strong baselines on three datasets encompassing various claim verification challenges. Our code and data are available.