OpenAsp: A Benchmark for Multi-document Open Aspect-based Summarization

Shmuel Amar, Liat Schiff, Ori Ernst, Asi Shefer, Ori Shapira, Ido Dagan

Submission Type: Regular Long Paper

Submission Track: Summarization

Keywords: Aspect-based Summarization, Datasets, Annotation, Multi-document Summarization

Abstract: The performance of automatic summarization models has improved dramatically in recent years. Yet, there is still a gap in meeting specific information needs of users in real-world scenarios, particularly when a targeted summary is sought, such as in the useful aspect-based summarization setting targeted in this paper. Previous datasets and studies for this setting have predominantly concentrated on a limited set of pre-defined aspects, focused solely on single document inputs, or relied on synthetic data. To advance research on more realistic scenarios, we introduce OpenAsp, a benchmark for multi-document open aspect-based summarization. This benchmark is created using a novel and cost-effective annotation protocol, by which an open aspect dataset is derived from existing generic multi-document summarization datasets. We analyze the properties of OpenAsp showcasing its high-quality content. Further, we show that the realistic open-aspect setting realized in OpenAsp poses a challenge for current state-of-the-art summarization models, as well as for large language models.

Submission Number: 3514