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An integrated framework, namely eXpath, is introduced which incorporates the concept of relation path with ontological closed path rules to enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of LP interpretation. Notably, the eXpath explanations can be fused with other single-link explanation approaches to achieve a better overall solution. Extensive experiments across benchmark datasets and LP models demonstrate that introducing eXpath can boost the quality of resulting explanations by about 20% on two key metrics and reduce the required explanation time by 61.4%, in comparison to the best existing method. Case studies further highlight eXpath's ability to provide more semantically meaningful explanations through path-based evidence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.14778\/3746405.3746410","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,3]],"date-time":"2025-09-03T17:06:20Z","timestamp":1756919180000},"page":"2818-2830","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["eXpath: Explaining Knowledge Graph Link Prediction with Ontological Closed Path Rules"],"prefix":"10.14778","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Ye","family":"Sun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Beihang University, Beijing, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beihang University, Beijing, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongxin","family":"Tong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beihang University, Beijing, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","volume-title":"International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC). 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