Reliable Decision Support with LLMs: A Framework for Evaluating Consistency in Binary Text Classification Applications

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Megahed, Fadel M., Chen, Ying-Ju, Jones-Farmer, L. Allision, Lee, Younghwa, Wang, Jiawei Brooke, Zwetsloot, Inez M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Megahed, Fadel M.
Chen, Ying-Ju
Jones-Farmer, L. Allision
Lee, Younghwa
Wang, Jiawei Brooke
Zwetsloot, Inez M.
author_facet Megahed, Fadel M.
Chen, Ying-Ju
Jones-Farmer, L. Allision
Lee, Younghwa
Wang, Jiawei Brooke
Zwetsloot, Inez M.
contents This study introduces a framework for evaluating consistency in large language model (LLM) binary text classification, addressing the lack of established reliability assessment methods. Adapting psychometric principles, we determine sample size requirements, develop metrics for invalid responses, and evaluate intra- and inter-rater reliability. Our case study examines financial news sentiment classification across 14 LLMs (including claude-3-7-sonnet, gpt-4o, deepseek-r1, gemma3, llama3.2, phi4, and command-r-plus), with five replicates per model on 1,350 articles. Models demonstrated high intra-rater consistency, achieving perfect agreement on 90-98% of examples, with minimal differences between expensive and economical models from the same families. When validated against StockNewsAPI labels, models achieved strong performance (accuracy 0.76-0.88), with smaller models like gemma3:1B, llama3.2:3B, and claude-3-5-haiku outperforming larger counterparts. All models performed at chance when predicting actual market movements, indicating task constraints rather than model limitations. Our framework provides systematic guidance for LLM selection, sample size planning, and reliability assessment, enabling organizations to optimize resources for classification tasks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_14918
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reliable Decision Support with LLMs: A Framework for Evaluating Consistency in Binary Text Classification Applications
Megahed, Fadel M.
Chen, Ying-Ju
Jones-Farmer, L. Allision
Lee, Younghwa
Wang, Jiawei Brooke
Zwetsloot, Inez M.
Computation and Language
Machine Learning
This study introduces a framework for evaluating consistency in large language model (LLM) binary text classification, addressing the lack of established reliability assessment methods. Adapting psychometric principles, we determine sample size requirements, develop metrics for invalid responses, and evaluate intra- and inter-rater reliability. Our case study examines financial news sentiment classification across 14 LLMs (including claude-3-7-sonnet, gpt-4o, deepseek-r1, gemma3, llama3.2, phi4, and command-r-plus), with five replicates per model on 1,350 articles. Models demonstrated high intra-rater consistency, achieving perfect agreement on 90-98% of examples, with minimal differences between expensive and economical models from the same families. When validated against StockNewsAPI labels, models achieved strong performance (accuracy 0.76-0.88), with smaller models like gemma3:1B, llama3.2:3B, and claude-3-5-haiku outperforming larger counterparts. All models performed at chance when predicting actual market movements, indicating task constraints rather than model limitations. Our framework provides systematic guidance for LLM selection, sample size planning, and reliability assessment, enabling organizations to optimize resources for classification tasks.
title Reliable Decision Support with LLMs: A Framework for Evaluating Consistency in Binary Text Classification Applications
topic Computation and Language
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14918