ETimeline: An Extensive Timeline Generation Dataset based on Large Language Model

TL;DR

ETimeline is a large, bilingual dataset of over 13,000 news articles and 600 timelines across 28 domains, created using LLMs to advance research in timeline generation and related tasks.

Contribution

This paper introduces ETimeline, a comprehensive, high-quality dataset for timeline generation, utilizing LLMs to improve data collection and coverage for academic and industrial research.

Findings

ETimeline contains over 13,000 news articles and 600 bilingual timelines.

The dataset covers 28 news domains, enhancing diversity and utility.

The LLM pipeline significantly improved data quality and coverage.

Abstract

Timeline generation is of great significance for a comprehensive understanding of the development of events over time. Its goal is to organize news chronologically, which helps to identify patterns and trends that may be obscured when viewing news in isolation, making it easier to track the development of stories and understand the interrelationships between key events. Timelines are now common in various commercial products, but academic research in this area is notably scarce. Additionally, the current datasets are in need of refinement for enhanced utility and expanded coverage. In this paper, we propose ETimeline, which encompasses over $13,000$ news articles, spanning $600$ bilingual timelines across $28$ news domains. Specifically, we gather a candidate pool of more than $120,000$ news articles and employ the large language model (LLM) Pipeline to improve performance, ultimately yielding the ETimeline. The data analysis underscores the appeal of ETimeline. Additionally, we also provide the news pool data for further research and analysis. This work contributes to the advancement of timeline generation research and supports a wide range of tasks, including topic generation and event relationships. We believe that this dataset will serve as a catalyst for innovative research and bridge the gap between academia and industry in understanding the practical application of technology services. The dataset is available at https://zenodo.org/records/11392212