GraphCheck: Multi-Path Fact-Checking with Entity-Relationship Graphs

Abstract: Automated fact-checking aims to assess the truthfulness of textual claims based on relevant evidence. However, verifying complex claims that require multi-hop reasoning remains a significant challenge. We propose GraphCheck, a novel framework that transforms claims into entity-relationship graphs for structured and systematic verification. By explicitly modeling both explicit and latent entities and exploring multiple reasoning paths, GraphCheck improves verification robustness. While GraphCheck excels in complex scenarios, it may be unnecessarily elaborate for simpler claims. To address this, we introduce DP-GraphCheck, a variant that employs a lightweight strategy selector to adaptively choose between direct prompting and GraphCheck. This selective mechanism improves both accuracy and efficiency by applying the appropriate level of reasoning to each claim. Experiments on the HOVER and EX-FEVER datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing methods, particularly on multi-hop claims. Moreover, the strategy selection mechanism in DP-GraphCheck generalizes well to other fact-checking pipelines, highlighting the versatility of our framework.