From Preferences to Principles: Rubric-Based Alignment for Grounded Knowledge Answers

Researchers developed a rubric-based reward system for open-domain question answering that uses query-specific, evidence-grounded rubrics decomposed into multiple quality dimensions. This approach improves answer quality across composition, grounding, and instruction-following by up to 6.5%. Conditioning rubrics on retrieved evidence enhances factual accuracy, while multi-dimensional rubrics improve coherence and adherence to query requirements.