{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7204205953","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","title":"Is Next-Chunk Reasoning RL Really Better than SFT? Revisiting Training Strategies under no-CoT Data","display_name":"Is Next-Chunk Reasoning RL Really Better than SFT? Revisiting Training Strategies under no-CoT Data","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-01-01","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7204205953","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.921.pdf","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608991","display_name":"Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"listed_in":[],"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"volume":null,"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["arxiv","crossref","datacite"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"bronze","oa_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.921.pdf","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5139820197","display_name":"Yinhao Tang","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I126520041","display_name":"University of Science and Technology of China","ror":"https://ror.org/04c4dkn09","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I126520041","https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yinhao Tang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory","University of Science and Technology of China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Science and Technology of China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I126520041"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5147210027","display_name":"Youqing Fang","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I126520041","display_name":"University of Science and Technology of China","ror":"https://ror.org/04c4dkn09","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I126520041","https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Youqing Fang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory","University of Science and Technology of China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Science and Technology of China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I126520041"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5143588700","display_name":"Yanan Sun","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yanan Sun","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5148087826","display_name":"Jiangning Liu","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Jiangning Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5148133318","display_name":"Ziyi Wang","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Ziyi Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5148080917","display_name":"Xun Zhao","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xun Zhao","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5148058230","display_name":"Weiming Zhang","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I126520041","display_name":"University of Science and Technology of China","ror":"https://ror.org/04c4dkn09","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I126520041","https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Weiming Zhang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory","University of Science and Technology of China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Science and Technology of China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I126520041"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5148172588","display_name":"Bin Liu","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I126520041","display_name":"University of Science and Technology of China","ror":"https://ror.org/04c4dkn09","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I126520041","https://openalex.org/I19820366"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Bin Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Science and Technology of China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Science and Technology of China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I126520041"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5050684712","display_name":"Kuikun Liu","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Kuikun Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5094208366","display_name":"Wenwei Zhang","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I126520041","display_name":"University of Science and Technology of China","ror":"https://ror.org/04c4dkn09","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I126520041","https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Wenwei Zhang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory","University of Science and Technology of China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Science and Technology of China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I126520041"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5096293559","display_name":"Kai Chen","orcid":null,"observed_orcids":[]},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4391012619","display_name":"Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory","ror":"https://ror.org/03wkvpx79","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Kai Chen","raw_affiliation_strings":["Shanghai AI Laboratory"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Shanghai AI Laboratory","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4391012619"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":2,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.67471261,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"21209","last_page":"21228"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10028","display_name":"Topic Modeling","score":0.5839999914169312,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10028","display_name":"Topic Modeling","score":0.5839999914169312,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10181","display_name":"Natural Language Processing Techniques","score":0.06019999831914902,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11902","display_name":"Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning","score":0.03689999878406525,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/supervised-fine-tuning","display_name":"supervised fine-tuning","score":0.7450000047683716},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/mathematical-reasoning","display_name":"mathematical reasoning","score":0.6899999976158142},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/post-training-evaluation","display_name":"post-training evaluation","score":0.4830000102519989}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.734499990940094},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C190839683","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2448197","display_name":"Train","level":2,"score":0.5787000060081482},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779343474","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3109175","display_name":"Context (archaeology)","level":2,"score":0.5738000273704529},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.5454000234603882},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C37335422","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6888134","display_name":"Model-based reasoning","level":3,"score":0.46959999203681946},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C20162079","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1151406","display_name":"Case-based reasoning","level":2,"score":0.4275999963283539},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C51632099","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3985153","display_name":"Training set","level":2,"score":0.37880000472068787},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C119857082","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2539","display_name":"Machine learning","level":1,"score":0.3776000142097473},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C86827895","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7098582","display_name":"Opportunistic reasoning","level":4,"score":0.3750999867916107},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C83725634","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7268699","display_name":"Qualitative reasoning","level":2,"score":0.3743000030517578},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C89288958","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7301504","display_name":"Reasoning system","level":2,"score":0.36649999022483826},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780586882","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7520643","display_name":"Simple (philosophy)","level":2,"score":0.3637000024318695},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C193221554","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5153664","display_name":"Commonsense reasoning","level":2,"score":0.3596999943256378},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777211547","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17141490","display_name":"Training (meteorology)","level":2,"score":0.32899999618530273},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C191290158","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14773596","display_name":"Ceiling effect","level":3,"score":0.32829999923706055},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C195344581","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2555318","display_name":"Automated reasoning","level":2,"score":0.3156000077724457},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C18762648","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42213","display_name":"Work (physics)","level":2,"score":0.31310001015663147},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C107848011","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4680756","display_name":"Adaptive reasoning","level":4,"score":0.2612000107765198},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777489069","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1589822","display_name":"Ceiling (cloud)","level":2,"score":0.26109999418258667},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C103057564","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4751139","display_name":"Analytic reasoning","level":3,"score":0.2547000050544739},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C26517878","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q228039","display_name":"Key (lock)","level":2,"score":0.25440001487731934}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":3,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.921.pdf","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608991","display_name":"Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"listed_in":[],"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:arXiv.org:2608.23256","doi":null,"is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23256","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.23256","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":"2331-8422","issn":["2331-8422"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"listed_in":[],"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"text"},{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2608.23256","doi":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2608.23256","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2608.23256","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":"2331-8422","issn":["2331-8422"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"listed_in":[],"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"Preprint"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/2026.emnlp-main.921","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.921.pdf","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4363608991","display_name":"Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"listed_in":[],"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"study_designs":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":true,"grobid_xml":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W7204205953.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W7204205953.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W4416330284","https://openalex.org/W7165685735","https://openalex.org/W4414818038","https://openalex.org/W4415137708","https://openalex.org/W4415108556","https://openalex.org/W4416285013","https://openalex.org/W7129768706","https://openalex.org/W7162634991","https://openalex.org/W4415248158","https://openalex.org/W7135240098"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Recent":[0],"work":[1],"proposes":[2],"next-chunk":[3,86,123],"reasoning":[4,33,87,124,139,142],"RL":[5,65,88,125],"for":[6],"leveraging":[7],"no-CoT":[8,76,107,163],"data-corpora":[9],"such":[10],"as":[11],"worked":[12],"solutions":[13],"and":[14,35,89,108,140],"textbook":[15],"derivations":[16],"that":[17,103,146],"contain":[18],"reasoning-rich":[19],"content":[20],"but":[21,92],"lack":[22],"explicit":[23],"chain-of-thought":[24],"annotations.The":[25],"method":[26],"trains":[27,105],"a":[28,82,90,98,116],"model":[29,74],"to":[30,41,75,161],"generate":[31],"implicit":[32],"traces":[34],"rewards":[36],"them":[37],"by":[38],"their":[39],"ability":[40],"predict":[42],"the":[43,60,64,73,159,167,170],"next":[44],"chunk":[45],"of":[46,85,169],"text.While":[47],"promising,":[48],"existing":[49],"evaluations":[50],"primarily":[51],"compare":[52],"against":[53],"conventional":[54],"SFT":[55,114],"baselines,":[56],"leaving":[57],"open":[58],"whether":[59],"gains":[61],"come":[62],"from":[63,69],"formulation":[66],"itself":[67],"or":[68],"more":[70],"effectively":[71],"exposing":[72],"data.We":[77],"address":[78],"this":[79],"question":[80],"with":[81],"controlled":[83],"study":[84],"simple":[91],"previously":[93],"overlooked":[94],"alternative:":[95],"Mixed":[96,113],"SFT,":[97],"single":[99],"supervised":[100],"fine-tuning":[101],"stage":[102],"jointly":[104],"on":[106],"long-CoT":[109],"data.Despite":[110],"its":[111],"simplicity,":[112],"achieves":[115],"clearly":[117],"higher":[118,147,155],"post-RLVR":[119,156],"performance":[120],"ceiling":[121],"than":[122],"while":[126],"requiring":[127],"over":[128],"60\u00d7":[129],"less":[130],"training":[131,164],"compute.The":[132],"advantage":[133],"is":[134],"consistent":[135],"across":[136],"in-domain":[137],"mathematical":[138],"out-of-domain":[141],"tasks.Moreover,":[143],"we":[144],"show":[145],"pre-RLVR":[148],"accuracy":[149],"does":[150],"not":[151],"necessarily":[152],"translate":[153],"into":[154],"accuracy,":[157],"highlighting":[158],"need":[160],"evaluate":[162],"strategies":[165],"in":[166],"context":[168],"full":[171],"post-training":[172],"pipeline.":[173]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-11-01T11:40:01.658920","created_date":"2026-08-26T00:00:00"}
