{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,6]],"date-time":"2026-01-06T05:28:03Z","timestamp":1767677283693,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]],"date-time":"2023-03-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1679529600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000266","name":"Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["#EP\/P010105\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["#EP\/P010105\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000266","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Artif. Intell."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Recent years have witnessed the rise of several new argumentation-based support systems, especially in the healthcare industry. In the medical sector, it is imperative that the exchange of information occurs in a clear and accurate way, and this has to be reflected in any employed virtual systems. Argument Schemes and their critical questions represent well-suited formal tools for modeling such information and exchanges since they provide detailed templates for explanations to be delivered. This paper details the EQR argument scheme and deploys it to generate explanations for patients' treatment advice using a chatbot (EQRbot). The EQR scheme (devised as a pattern of Explanation-Question-Response interactions between agents) comprises multiple premises that can be interrogated to disclose additional data. The resulting explanations, obtained as instances of the employed argumentation reasoning engine and the EQR template, will then feed the conversational agent that will exhaustively convey the requested information and answers to follow-on users' queries as personalized Telegram messages. Comparisons with a previous baseline and existing argumentation-based chatbots illustrate the improvements yielded by EQRbot against similar conversational agents.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frai.2023.1045614","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]],"date-time":"2023-03-23T06:22:32Z","timestamp":1679552552000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["EQRbot: A chatbot delivering EQR argument-based explanations"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Federico","family":"Castagna","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Alexandra","family":"Garton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Peter","family":"McBurney","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Simon","family":"Parsons","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Isabel","family":"Sassoon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Elizabeth I.","family":"Sklar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.1002\/ejsp.2420220206","article-title":"Explaining in conversation: towards an argument model","volume":"22","author":"Antaki","year":"1992","journal-title":"Eur. J. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"855","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artint.2007.04.009","article-title":"Practical reasoning as presumptive argumentation using action based alternating transition systems","volume":"171","author":"Atkinson","year":"2007","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"822","DOI":"10.1007\/11827405_80","article-title":"\u201cArgumentation for decision support,\u201d","volume-title":"International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications","author":"Atkinson","year":"2006"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/EUROCON.2019.8861812","article-title":"\u201cUser involvement in the design of a data-driven self-management decision support tool for stroke survivors,\u201d","volume-title":"IEEE EUROCON 2019-18th International Conference on Smart Technologies","author":"Balatsoukas","year":"2019"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/ICHI48887.2020.9374338","article-title":"\u201cIn the wild pilot usability assessment of a connected health system for stroke self management,\u201d","volume-title":"2020 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI)","author":"Balatsoukas","year":"2020"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1207\/S15327051HCI16234_05","article-title":"Intelligibility and accountability: human considerations in context-aware systems","volume":"16","author":"Bellotti","year":"2001","journal-title":"Hum. Comput. Interact."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"619","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artint.2007.05.001","article-title":"Argumentation in artificial intelligence","volume":"171","author":"Bench-Capon","year":"2007","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/9780262026437.001.0001","volume-title":"Elements of Argumentation","author":"Besnard","year":"2008"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.3233\/AAC-160001","article-title":"Combining explanation and argumentation in dialogue","volume":"7","author":"Bex","year":"2016","journal-title":"Argument Comput."},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2055207618804927","DOI":"10.1177\/2055207618804927","article-title":"The use of computer-interpretable clinical guidelines to manage care complexities of patients with multimorbid conditions: a review","volume":"4","author":"Bilici","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Health"},{"key":"B11","article-title":"\u201cA Chatbot Extended with Argumentation,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Advances in Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence 2021 co-located with the 20th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA 2021)","author":"Bistarelli","year":"2021"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/S0004-3702(97)00015-5","article-title":"An abstract, argumentation-theoretic approach to default reasoning","volume":"93","author":"Bondarenko","year":"1997","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B13","first-page":"5427","article-title":"\u201cFive years of argument mining: a data-driven analysis,\u201d","volume-title":"IJCAI, Vol. 18","author":"Cabrio","year":"2018"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"351","DOI":"10.3233\/FAIA220168","article-title":"\u201cProviding explanations via the EQR argument scheme,\u201d","volume-title":"Computational Models of Argument: Proceedings of COMMA 2022","author":"Castagna","year":"2022"},{"key":"B15","first-page":"378","article-title":"\u201cOn the acceptability of arguments in bipolar argumentation frameworks,\u201d","volume-title":"European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning and Uncertainty ECSQARU 2005","author":"Cayrol","year":"2005"},{"key":"B16","first-page":"149","article-title":"\u201cArgument harvesting using chatbots,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of COMMA","author":"Chalaguine","year":"2018"},{"key":"B17","first-page":"457","article-title":"\u201cChatbot design for argument harvesting,\u201d","volume-title":"Computational Models of Argument: Proceedings of COMMA 2018","author":"Chalaguine","year":"2018"},{"key":"B18","first-page":"59","article-title":"\u201cAddressing popular concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccination with natural language argumentation dialogues,\u201d","volume-title":"European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches with Uncertainty, ECSQARU 2021","author":"Chalaguine","year":"2021"},{"key":"B19","first-page":"1","article-title":"\u201cKnowledge acquisition and corpus for argumentation-based chatbots,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Advances In Argumentation In Artificial Intelligence co-located with the 18th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence","author":"Chalaguine","year":"2019"},{"key":"B20","first-page":"9","article-title":"\u201cA persuasive chatbot using a crowd-sourced argument graph and concerns,\u201d","volume-title":"Computational Models of Argument: Proceedings of COMMA 2020","author":"Chalaguine","year":"2020"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1109\/eScience55777.2022.00019","article-title":"\u201cUsing microservices to design patient-facing research software,\u201d","volume-title":"2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on e-Science (e-Science)","author":"Chapman","year":"2022"},{"key":"B22","first-page":"2345","article-title":"\u201cComputational argumentation-based clinical decision support,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. Vol. 4","author":"Chapman","year":"2019"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"337","DOI":"10.1145\/371578.371581","article-title":"Logical models of argument","volume":"32","author":"Chesnevar","year":"2000","journal-title":"ACM Comput. Surv."},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"154","DOI":"10.1007\/11794578_10","article-title":"\u201cNew types of inter-agent dialogues,\u201d","volume-title":"Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems","author":"Cogan","year":"2006"},{"key":"B25","article-title":"\u201cArgumentation for explainable reasoning with conflicting medical recommendations,\u201d","volume-title":"CEUR Workshop Proceedings","author":"Cyras","year":"2018"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.24963\/ijcai.2021\/600","article-title":"\u201cArgumentative XAI: a survey,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the Thirtieth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence","author":"Cyras","year":"2021"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(94)00041-X","article-title":"On the acceptability of arguments and its fundamental role in nonmonotonic reasoning, logic programming and n-person games","volume":"77","author":"Dung","year":"1995","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"734","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-89982-2_67","article-title":"\u201cAspartix: implementing argumentation frameworks using answer-set programming,\u201d","volume-title":"Logic Programming","author":"Egly","year":"2008"},{"key":"B29","first-page":"385","article-title":"\u201cThe CONSULT system: Demonstration,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '18)","author":"Essers","year":"2018"},{"key":"B30","first-page":"165","article-title":"\u201cNon-repudiable provenance for clinical decision support systems,\u201d","volume-title":"Provenance and Annotation of Data and Processes: 8th and 9th International Provenance and Annotation Workshop, IPAW 2020 + IPAW 2021, Virtual Event, July 19-22, 2021, Proceedings","author":"Fairweather","year":"2020"},{"key":"B31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"477","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-89391-0_27","article-title":"\u201cAn argumentative dialogue system for COVID-19 vaccine information,\u201d","volume-title":"ILogic and Argumentation: 4th International Conference, CLAR 2021, Hangzhou, China, October 20\u201322, 2021, Proceedings","author":"Fazzinga","year":"2021"},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artmed.2013.02.003","article-title":"Argumentation-logic for creating and explaining medical hypotheses","volume":"58","author":"Grando","year":"2013","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Med."},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"eaay7120","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aay7120","article-title":"XAI\u2013explainable artificial intelligence","volume":"4","author":"Gunning","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sci. Robot."},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"644","DOI":"10.3233\/SHTI190302","article-title":"A collaborative decision support tool for managing chronic conditions","volume":"264","author":"K\u00f6kciyan","year":"2019","journal-title":"Stud. Health. Technol. Inform."},{"key":"B35","first-page":"319","article-title":"\u201cAn argumentation-based approach to generate domain-specific explanations,\u201d","volume-title":"Multi-Agent Systems and Agreement Technologies, 17th European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, EUMAS 2020, and 7th International Conference on Agreement Technologies, AT 2020","author":"K\u00f6kciyan","year":"2020"},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1109\/MIS.2021.3051420","article-title":"Applying metalevel argumentation frameworks to support medical decision making","volume":"36","author":"K\u00f6kciyan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Intell. Syst."},{"key":"B37","first-page":"455","article-title":"\u201cTowards an argumentation system for supporting patients in self-managing their chronic conditions,\u201d","volume-title":"The Workshops of the The Thirty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Health Intelligence Workshop at AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","author":"Kokciyan","year":"2018"},{"key":"B38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"702","DOI":"10.1109\/MIS.2020.3044944","article-title":"Argumentation-based health information systems: a design methodology","volume":"36","author":"Lindgren","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Intell. Syst."},{"key":"B39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.1903.02409","article-title":"A grounded interaction protocol for explainable artificial intelligence","author":"Madumal","year":"2019","journal-title":"arXiv [Preprint]"},{"key":"B40","first-page":"2108","article-title":"\u201cTransformer-based argument mining for healthcare applications,\u201d","volume-title":"ECAI 2020","author":"Mayer","year":"2020"},{"key":"B41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102098","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artmed.2021.102098","article-title":"Enhancing evidence-based medicine with natural language argumentative analysis of clinical trials","volume":"118","author":"Mayer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Med."},{"key":"B42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1007\/978-0-387-98197-0_13","article-title":"\u201cDialogue games for agent argumentation,\u201d","volume-title":"Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence","author":"McBurney","year":"2009"},{"key":"B43","first-page":"263","article-title":"Argument schemes and dialogue protocols: Doug Walton's legacy in artificial intelligence","volume":"8","author":"McBurney","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Appl. Log."},{"key":"B44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artint.2018.07.007","article-title":"Explanation in artificial intelligence: insights from the social sciences","volume":"267","author":"Miller","year":"2019","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"361","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artint.2012.10.008","article-title":"A general account of argumentation with preferences","volume":"195","author":"Modgil","year":"2013","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B46","article-title":"\u201cArgumentation with goals for clinical decision support in multimorbidity,\u201d","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems","author":"Oliveira","year":"2018"},{"key":"B47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"481","DOI":"10.1207\/s15516709cog1104_4","article-title":"Defeasible reasoning","volume":"11","author":"Pollock","year":"1987","journal-title":"Cogn. Sci."},{"key":"B48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/0004-3702(80)90014-4","article-title":"A logic for default reasoning","volume":"13","author":"Reiter","year":"1980","journal-title":"Artif. Intell."},{"key":"B49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"329","DOI":"10.3233\/AAC-200550","article-title":"Argumentation schemes for clinical decision support","volume":"12","author":"Sassoon","year":"2021","journal-title":"Argument Comput."},{"key":"B50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"186","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-30391-4_11","article-title":"\u201cExplainable argumentation for wellness consultation,\u201d","volume-title":"Explainable, Transparent Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: First International Workshop, EXTRAAMAS 2019, Montreal, QC, Canada, May 13\u201314, 2019","author":"Sassoon","year":"2019"},{"key":"B51","first-page":"394","article-title":"\u201cArgumentation-based explanations of multimorbidity treatment plans,\u201d","volume-title":"PRIMA 2020: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems: 23rd International Conference, Nagoya, Japan, November 18\u201320, 2020, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)","author":"Shaheen","year":"2021"},{"key":"B52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"249","DOI":"10.3233\/AAC-200908","article-title":"Ethical challenges in argumentation and dialogue in a healthcare context","volume":"12","author":"Snaith","year":"2021","journal-title":"Argument Comput."},{"key":"B53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103767","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbi.2021.103767","article-title":"Transformed: end-to-end transformers for evidence-based medicine and argument mining in medical literature","volume":"117","author":"Stylianou","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Biomed. Inform."},{"key":"B54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1038\/s41746-020-0221-y","article-title":"An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success","volume":"3","author":"Sutton","year":"2020","journal-title":"NPJ Digit. Med."},{"key":"B55","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"209","DOI":"10.1007\/s10458-011-9174-5","article-title":"Deliberation dialogues for reasoning about safety critical actions","volume":"25","author":"Tolchinsky","year":"2012","journal-title":"Auton. Agents Multi Agent Syst."},{"key":"B56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1080\/19462166.2013.869878","article-title":"A tutorial on assumption-based argumentation","volume":"5","author":"Toni","year":"2014","journal-title":"Argument Comput."},{"key":"B57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e211276","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2021.1276","article-title":"Association of clinician diagnostic performance with machine learning\u2013based decision support systems: a systematic review","volume":"4","author":"Vasey","year":"2021","journal-title":"JAMA Netw. Open"},{"key":"B58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e5","DOI":"10.1017\/S0269888921000011","article-title":"Argumentation and explainable artificial intelligence: a survey","volume":"36","author":"Vassiliades","year":"2021","journal-title":"Knowledge Eng. Rev."},{"key":"B59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1016\/j.inffus.2021.05.009","article-title":"Notions of explainability and evaluation approaches for explainable artificial intelligence","volume":"76","author":"Vilone","year":"2021","journal-title":"Inform. Fusion"},{"volume-title":"Argumentation Schemes for Presumptive Reasoning","year":"1996","author":"Walton","key":"B60"},{"volume-title":"Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority","year":"1997","author":"Walton","key":"B61"},{"key":"B62","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511802034","volume-title":"Argumentation Schemes","author":"Walton","year":"2008"},{"key":"B63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"796","DOI":"10.1145\/506443.506602","article-title":"\u201cIn the lab and out in the wild: remote web usability testing for mobile devices,\u201d","volume-title":"CHI'02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '02)","author":"Waterson","year":"2002"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frai.2023.1045614\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,26]],"date-time":"2023-07-26T12:15:12Z","timestamp":1690373712000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frai.2023.1045614\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]]},"references-count":63,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/frai.2023.1045614"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frai.2023.1045614","relation":{},"ISSN":["2624-8212"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2624-8212"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,23]]},"article-number":"1045614"}}