mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

DSGym: A Holistic Framework for Evaluating and Training Data Science Agents

arXiv 2601.16344 ↗First posted 22 Jan 2026cs.AIcited by 15

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Web, search, and research agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Data science agents promise to accelerate discovery and insight-generation by turning data into executable analyses and findings. Yet existing data science benchmarks fall short due to fragmented evaluation interfaces that make cross-benchmark comparison difficult, narrow task coverage and a lack of rigorous data grounding. In particular, we show that a substantial portion of tasks in current benchmarks can be solved without using the actual data. To address these limitations, we introduce DSGym, a standardized framework for evaluating and training data science agents in self-contained execution environments. Unlike static benchmarks, DSGym provides a modular architecture that makes it easy to add tasks, agent scaffolds, and tools, positioning it as a live, extensible testbed. We curate DSGym-Tasks, a holistic task suite that standardizes and refines existing benchmarks via quality and shortcut solvability filtering. We further expand coverage with (1) DSBio: expert-derived bioinformatics tasks grounded in literature and (2) DSPredict: challenging prediction tasks spanning domains such as computer vision, molecular prediction, and single-cell perturbation. Beyond evaluation, DSGym enables agent training via execution-verified data synthesis pipeline. As a case study, we build a 2,000-example training set and trained a 4B model in DSGym that outperforms GPT-4o on standardized analysis benchmarks. Overall, DSGym enables rigorous end-to-end measurement of whether agents can plan, implement, and validate data analyses in realistic scientific context.

Key facts. Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Web, search, and research agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 23 of its 42 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2026.

Builds on

23 of 42 references.

Closest ancestors · 10

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025LLM-Based Data Science Agents: A Survey of Capabilities, Challenges, and Future Directions5 Oct
  2. 2025Scaling Generalist Data-Analytic Agents29 Sep
  3. 2025DABstep: Data Agent Benchmark for Multi-step Reasoning30 Jun
  4. 2025DatawiseAgent: A Notebook-Centric LLM Agent Framework for Adaptive and Robust Data Science Automation10 Mar
  5. 2025DataSciBench: An LLM Agent Benchmark for Data Science19 Feb
  6. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-based Agents for Statistics and Data Science18 Dec
  7. 2024DA-Code: Agent Data Science Code Generation Benchmark for Large Language Models9 Oct
  8. 2024MLE-bench: Evaluating Machine Learning Agents on Machine Learning Engineering9 Oct
  9. 2024BLADE: Benchmarking Language Model Agents for Data-Driven Science19 Aug
  10. 2024Data Interpreter: An LLM Agent For Data Science28 Feb

Other references · 13

  1. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,820
  2. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  3. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  4. 2024LlamaFactory: Unified Efficient Fine-Tuning of 100+ Language Modelscited by 1,464
  5. 2024Executable Code Actions Elicit Better LLM Agentscited by 564
  6. 2022DS-1000: A Natural and Reliable Benchmark for Data Science Code Generationcited by 452
  7. 2025AIDE: AI-Driven Exploration in the Space of Codecited by 226
  8. 2023Emergent autonomous scientific research capabilities of large language modelscited by 132
  9. 2024MatPlotAgent: Method and Evaluation for LLM-Based Agentic Scientific Data Visualizationcited by 102
  10. 2022Natural Language to Code Generation in Interactive Data Science Notebookscited by 87
  11. 2024AutoKaggle: A Multi-Agent Framework for Autonomous Data Science Competitionscited by 70
  12. 2024Are LLMs Capable of Data-based Statistical and Causal Reasoning? Benchmarking Advanced Quantitative Reasoning with Datacited by 63
1 more
  1. 2025StatEval: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Large Language Models in Statisticscited by 6

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 15.

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  1. 2026DSAEval: Evaluating Data Science Agents on a Wide Range of Real-World Data Science Problems
  2. 2026DS-Lighting: Making Agent Harnesses Explicit for Data-Science Automation
  3. 2026DSAgentBench: Can Agents Automate End-to-End Data-Science Workflows in Real Computer Environments?
  4. 2025DSMentor: Enhancing Data Science Agents with Curriculum Learning and Online Knowledge Accumulation
  5. 2026AgenticDataBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Data Agents
  6. 2024Benchmarking Data Science Agents
  7. 2026A case study of evaluating AI agents on a neuroscience data-to-discovery pipeline
  8. 2024ScienceAgentBench: Toward Rigorous Assessment of Language Agents for Data-Driven Scientific Discovery