Factuality and Transparency Are All RAG Needs! Self-Explaining Contrastive Evidence Re-ranking

Abstract: This extended abstract introduces Self-Explaining Contrastive Evidence Re-Ranking (CER), a novel method that restructures retrieval around factual evidence by fine-tuning embeddings with contrastive learning and generating token-level attribution rationales for each retrieved passage. Hard negatives are automatically selected using a subjectivity-based criterion, forcing the model to pull factual rationales closer while pushing subjective or misleading explanations apart. As a result, the method creates an embedding space explicitly aligned with evidential reasoning. We evaluated our method on clinical trial reports, and initial experimental results show that CER improves retrieval accuracy, mitigates the potential for hallucinations in RAG systems, and provides transparent, evidence-based retrieval that enhances reliability, especially in safety-critical domains.