Publications

(see full list in Google Scholar | *: Equal contribution; ^†: Corresponding author)

Preprints

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  Imagine-then-Plan: Agent Learning from Adaptive Lookahead with World Models

  Youwei Liu, Jian Wang^†, Hanlin Wang, Beichen Guo, Wenjie Li.
  arXiv:2601.08955
  arXiv | Github

• 

  Reasoning Beyond Language: A Comprehensive Survey on Latent Chain-of-Thought Reasoning

  Xinghao Chen, Anhao Zhao, Heming Xia, Xuan Lu, Hanlin Wang, Yanjun Chen, Wei Zhang, Jian Wang^†, Wenjie Li, Xiaoyu Shen^†.
  arXiv:2505.16782, 2025
  arXiv | Github

2026 - Present

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  Where and What: Reasoning Dynamic and Implicit Preferences in Situated Conversational Recommendation

  Dongding Lin, Jian Wang^†, Yongqi Li, Wenjie Li.
  The 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), 2026
  arXiv | Github

• 

  Foresight Optimization for Strategic Reasoning in Large Language Models

  Jiashuo Wang*, Jiawen Duan*, Jian Wang, Kaitao Song, Chunpu Xu, Johnny K. W. Ho, Fenggang Yu, Wenjie Li, Johan F. Hoorn.
  The 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), 2026
  arXiv | Github

• 

  Seeing Isn't Believing: Mitigating Belief Inertia via Active Intervention in Embodied Agents

  Hanlin Wang, Chak Tou Leong, Jian Wang^†, Wenjie Li.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL (ACL-Findings), 2026
  arXiv | Github

• 

  Finding RELIEF: Shaping Reasoning Behavior without Reasoning Supervision via Belief Engineering

  Chak Tou Leong, Dingwei Chen, Heming Xia, Qingyu Yin, Sunbowen Lee, Jian Wang^†, Wenjie Li.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL (ACL-Findings), 2026
  arXiv | Github

• 

  OptScale: Probabilistic Optimality for Inference-time Scaling

  Youkang Wang, Jian Wang, Rubing Chen, Xiao-Yong Wei.
  AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2026.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

2025

• 

  Benchmarking for Domain-Specific LLMs: A Case Study on Academia and Beyond

  Rubing Chen, Jiaxin Wu, Jian Wang, Xulu Zhang, Wenqi Fan, Chenghua Lin, Xiao-Yong Wei, Qing Li.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP (EMNLP-Findings), 2025
  arXiv | Paper

• 

  Towards Harmless Multimodal Assistants with Blind Preference Optimization

  Yongqi Li, Lu Yang, Jian Wang, Runyang You, Wenjie Li, Liqiang Nie.
  The 33rd ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM MM), 2025.
  Paper | Github

• 

  Why Safeguarded Ships Run Aground? Aligned Large Language Models' Safety Mechanisms Tend to Be Anchored in The Template Region

  Chak Tou Leong, Qingyu Yin, Jian Wang^†, Wenjie Li.
  The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), 2025.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  STeCa: Step-level Trajectory Calibration for LLM Agent Learning

  Hanlin Wang, Jian Wang^†, Chak Tou Leong, Wenjie Li.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL (ACL-Findings), 2025
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Training Turn-by-Turn Verifiers for Dialogue Tutoring Agents: The Curious Case of LLMs as Your Coding Tutors

  Jian Wang, Yinpei Dai, Yichi Zhang, Ziqiao Ma, Wenjie Li, Joyce Chai.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL (ACL-Findings), 2025
  arXiv | Paper | Github

2024 and Before

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  Instruct Once, Chat Consistently in Multiple Rounds: An Efficient Tuning Framework for Dialogue

  Jian Wang, Chak Tou Leong, Jiashuo Wang, Dongding Lin, Wenjie Li, Xiao-Yong Wei.
  The 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), 2024.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  SCREEN: A Benchmark for Situated Conversational Recommendation

  Dongding Lin*, Jian Wang*, Chak Tou Leong, Wenjie Li.
  The 32nd ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM MM), 2024.
  Paper | Github

• 

  COOPER: Coordinating Specialized Agents towards a Complex Dialogue Goal

  Yi Cheng, Wenge Liu, Jian Wang, Chak Tou Leong, Yi Ouyang, Wenjie Li, Xian Wu, Yefeng Zheng.
  AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2024.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Target-constrained Bidirectional Planning for Generation of Target-oriented Proactive Dialogue

  Jian Wang, Dongding Lin, Wenjie Li.
  ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), 2024.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Target-oriented Proactive Dialogue Systems with Personalization: Problem Formulation and Dataset Curation

  Jian Wang, Yi Cheng, Dongding Lin, Chak Tou Leong, Wenjie Li.
  The 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP), 2023.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Self-Detoxifying Language Models via Toxification Reversal

  Chak Tou Leong, Yi Cheng, Jiashuo Wang, Jian Wang, Wenjie Li.
  The 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP), 2023.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Dialogue Planning via Brownian Bridge Stochastic Process for Goal-directed Proactive Dialogue

  Jian Wang*, Dongding Lin*, Wenjie Li.
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL (ACL-Findings), 2023.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  A Target-driven Planning Approach for Goal-directed Dialog Systems

  Jian Wang, Dongding Lin, Wenjie Li.
  IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS), 2023.
  Paper | PDF | Github

• 

  Template-guided Clarifying Question Generation for Web Search Clarification

  Jian Wang and Wenjie Li.
  ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 2021.
  Paper | Slides | Github

• 

  Dual Dynamic Memory Network for End-to-End Multi-turn Task-oriented Dialog Systems

  Jian Wang, Junhao Liu, Wei Bi, Xiaojiang Liu, Kejing He, Ruifeng Xu, Min Yang.
  International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING), 2020.
  Paper | Github

• 

  Improving Knowledge-aware Dialogue Generation via Knowledge Base Question Answering

  Jian Wang, Junhao Liu, Wei Bi, Xiaojiang Liu, Kejing He, Ruifeng Xu, Min Yang.
  AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2020.
  arXiv | Paper | Github

• 

  Topic Discovery by Spectral Decomposition and Clustering with Coordinated Global and Local Contexts

  Jian Wang, Kejing He, Min Yang.
  International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics (JMLC), 2020.
  Paper | PDF