@inproceedings{yu-etal-2026-systematic,
title = "A Systematic Review of Meta-Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models",
author = "Yu, Haoran and
Wang, Zilong and
Pan, Kang and
Zhang, Xiao and
Meng, Erli and
Li, Shuai",
editor = "Zhang, Yue and
Xu, Ruifeng and
Purwarianti, Ayu and
Rong, Tong and
Suzuki, Jun",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing and the 5th Conference of the {A}sia-Pacific Chapter of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)",
month = nov,
year = "2026",
address = "Hengqin, China",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.aacl-long.240/",
pages = "5392--5414",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-439-2",
abstract = "In this paper, we survey recent advances in meta-reasoning for Large Reasoning Models (LRMs). Although LRMs have made remarkable progress, they face critical limitations including overthinking on simple queries, under-thinking on complex problems, and ineffective exploration lacking strategic direction. We examine how meta-reasoning addresses these challenges by providing the necessary mechanisms to dynamically regulate and optimize the reasoning process, and propose a framework to categorize existing studies into three core components: the monitor which provides self-perception of the reasoning state, the controller which dictates the meta-policy for regulating actions, and the mechanism which executes the algorithmic mapping between them. By systematically reviewing these developments and foundational challenges, we aim to map the current landscape and identify promising directions for creating more adaptive, efficient, and self-regulating reasoning systems."
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T A Systematic Review of Meta-Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models
%A Yu, Haoran
%A Wang, Zilong
%A Pan, Kang
%A Zhang, Xiao
%A Meng, Erli
%A Li, Shuai
%Y Zhang, Yue
%Y Xu, Ruifeng
%Y Purwarianti, Ayu
%Y Rong, Tong
%Y Suzuki, Jun
%S Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing and the 5th Conference of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)
%D 2026
%8 November
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Hengqin, China
%@ 979-8-89176-439-2
%F yu-etal-2026-systematic
%X In this paper, we survey recent advances in meta-reasoning for Large Reasoning Models (LRMs). Although LRMs have made remarkable progress, they face critical limitations including overthinking on simple queries, under-thinking on complex problems, and ineffective exploration lacking strategic direction. We examine how meta-reasoning addresses these challenges by providing the necessary mechanisms to dynamically regulate and optimize the reasoning process, and propose a framework to categorize existing studies into three core components: the monitor which provides self-perception of the reasoning state, the controller which dictates the meta-policy for regulating actions, and the mechanism which executes the algorithmic mapping between them. By systematically reviewing these developments and foundational challenges, we aim to map the current landscape and identify promising directions for creating more adaptive, efficient, and self-regulating reasoning systems.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.aacl-long.240/
%P 5392-5414
Markdown (Informal)
[A Systematic Review of Meta-Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models](https://aclanthology.org/2026.aacl-long.240/) (Yu et al., AACL-IJCNLP 2026)
ACL
- Haoran Yu, Zilong Wang, Kang Pan, Xiao Zhang, Erli Meng, and Shuai Li. 2026. A Systematic Review of Meta-Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models. In Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing and the 5th Conference of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers), pages 5392–5414, Hengqin, China. Association for Computational Linguistics.