Quinex: Quantitative information extraction from text using open and lightweight LLMs

The Innovation, vol. 7, pp. 101391

Abstract

Extracting quantitative data from the growing body of scientific literature is a challenge central to modern research across disciplines. While recent advances in large language models have significantly facilitated automation of this traditionally time-consuming task, their computational demands limit scalability and accessibility. Smaller specialized systems offer reduced computational requirements but sacrifice accuracy, domain generalization, or the extraction of contextual details. To address these gaps, we present Quinex, a domain-agnostic framework for quantitative information extraction based on comparably small language models. Quinex identifies quantities and their associated entities, properties, and qualifiers using a multi-turn question-answering approach. By addressing the data bottleneck, considering implicit properties, and optimizing extraction order and question templates, Quinex achieves state-of-the-art F1 scores of over 98% for quantities, 82% for entities, and 87% for properties across diverse scientific genres. It goes beyond identification by normalizing units, aligning them with a unit ontology, and detailing critical qualifiers such as references, spatiotemporal scopes, and determination methods. By reducing the effort required to extract structured quantitative data from texts, Quinex enables transformative applications, including automated literature reviews, quantitative search, and trend monitoring, and sets a new benchmark for scalable, accurate, and domain-agnostic quantitative information extraction.

Authors 8

1. Jan Göpfert Aachen Chair for Fuel Cells Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, Chair for Fuel Cells, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 52062 Aachen, Germany

2. Patrick Kuckertz

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

3. G. Müller Aachen Chair for Fuel Cells Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, Chair for Fuel Cells, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 52062 Aachen, Germany

4. Luna Lütz Aachen Chair for Fuel Cells Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, Chair for Fuel Cells, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 52062 Aachen, Germany

5. Celine Körner

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

6. Hang Khuat

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

7. Detlef Stolten Aachen Chair for Fuel Cells Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, Chair for Fuel Cells, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 52062 Aachen, Germany

8. Jann Michael Weinand

   Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Climate and Energy Systems - Jülich Systems Analysis, 52425 Jülich, Germany