@inproceedings{song-2026-alignment,
title = "Alignment Tuning for Large Language Models: A Data-Centric Lens on Alignment Data Pipelines",
author = "Song, Hwanjun",
editor = "Liakata, Maria and
Moreira, Viviane P. and
Zhang, Jiajun and
Jurgens, David",
booktitle = "Findings of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics: {ACL} 2026",
month = jul,
year = "2026",
address = "San Diego, California, United States",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.121/",
pages = "2541--2561",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-395-1",
abstract = "Much of the alignment tuning literature is organized around optimization objectives, while the construction of alignment data is often treated implicitly. In this survey, we adopt a data centric perspective and reframe alignment tuning as a pipeline design problem. We decompose alignment data construction into three interacting stages, response synthesis, preference evaluation, and preference instantiation, and use this framework to organize existing alignment methods into a unified taxonomy. Through this lens, we identify recurring design trade-offs and failure modes observed across prior alignment methods, and distill a set of high level principles that clarify how pipeline design choices influence the resulting optimization signal. Finally, we outline open challenges for alignment data pipelines, including prompt-level alignment, agentic settings, and alignment under evolving objectives."
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<abstract>Much of the alignment tuning literature is organized around optimization objectives, while the construction of alignment data is often treated implicitly. In this survey, we adopt a data centric perspective and reframe alignment tuning as a pipeline design problem. We decompose alignment data construction into three interacting stages, response synthesis, preference evaluation, and preference instantiation, and use this framework to organize existing alignment methods into a unified taxonomy. Through this lens, we identify recurring design trade-offs and failure modes observed across prior alignment methods, and distill a set of high level principles that clarify how pipeline design choices influence the resulting optimization signal. Finally, we outline open challenges for alignment data pipelines, including prompt-level alignment, agentic settings, and alignment under evolving objectives.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Alignment Tuning for Large Language Models: A Data-Centric Lens on Alignment Data Pipelines
%A Song, Hwanjun
%Y Liakata, Maria
%Y Moreira, Viviane P.
%Y Zhang, Jiajun
%Y Jurgens, David
%S Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026
%D 2026
%8 July
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C San Diego, California, United States
%@ 979-8-89176-395-1
%F song-2026-alignment
%X Much of the alignment tuning literature is organized around optimization objectives, while the construction of alignment data is often treated implicitly. In this survey, we adopt a data centric perspective and reframe alignment tuning as a pipeline design problem. We decompose alignment data construction into three interacting stages, response synthesis, preference evaluation, and preference instantiation, and use this framework to organize existing alignment methods into a unified taxonomy. Through this lens, we identify recurring design trade-offs and failure modes observed across prior alignment methods, and distill a set of high level principles that clarify how pipeline design choices influence the resulting optimization signal. Finally, we outline open challenges for alignment data pipelines, including prompt-level alignment, agentic settings, and alignment under evolving objectives.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.121/
%P 2541-2561
Markdown (Informal)
[Alignment Tuning for Large Language Models: A Data-Centric Lens on Alignment Data Pipelines](https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.121/) (Song, Findings 2026)
ACL