Verifiable Reasoning for LLM-based Generative Recommendation
Abstract
Reasoning in Large Language Models (LLMs) has recently shown strong potential in enhancing generative recommendation through deep understanding of complex user preference. Existing approaches follow a reason-then-recommend paradigm, where LLMs perform step-by-step reasoning before item generation. However, this paradigm inevitably suffers from reasoning degradation (i.e., homogeneous or error-accumulated reasoning) due to the lack of intermediate verification, thus undermining the recommendation. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel reason-verify-recommend paradigm, which interleaves reasoning with verification to provide reliable feedback, guiding the reasoning process toward more faithful user preference understanding. To enable effective verification, we establish two key principles for verifier design: 1) reliability ensures accurate evaluation of reasoning correctness and informative guidance generation; and 2) multi-dimensionality emphasizes comprehensive verification across multi-dimensional user preferences. Accordingly, we propose an effective implementation called VRec. It employs a mixture of verifiers to ensure multi-dimensionality, while leveraging a proxy prediction objective to pursue reliability. Experiments on four real-world datasets demonstrate that VRec substantially enhances recommendation effectiveness and scalability without compromising efficiency.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xuanhua Yang | 60 | 84 Breaking the Relevance-Diversity Seesaw: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning with RL for Industrial Novelty Recommendation (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization 75 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 61 Towards Personalized Bundle Creative Generation with Contrastive Non-Autoregressive Decoding (2022) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 2 | Jieming Zhu | 58 | 74 EAGER-LLM: Enhancing Large Language Models as Recommenders through Exogenous Behavior-Semantic Integration (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 EAGER: Two-Stream Generative Recommender with Behavior-Semantic Collaboration (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 61 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 3 | Qijiong Liu | 55 | 69 RecBase: Generative Foundation Model Pretraining for Zero-Shot Recommendation (2025) Generative Retrieval and Recommendation Architectures 61 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 61 Accelerating Generative Recommendation via Simple Categorical User Sequence Compression (2026) Generative Retrieval and Recommendation Architectures |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Kun Gai | 51 |
Area-chair candidates (5)
| Kun Gai assigned | 51 | 5 papers | |
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 50 | 15 papers | |
| Xiaoyi Zeng | 50 | 11 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia | 49 | 10 papers | |
| Yanan Niu COI: co-author | 48 | 15 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 COI: co-author | 67 | 3 | 65 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 On Softmax Direct Preference Optimization for Recommendation (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 2 | Jizhi Zhang COI: co-author | 62 | 3 | 65 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 62 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 3 | Chongming Gao COI: co-author | 62 | 3 | 75 MGFRec: Towards Reinforced Reasoning Recommendation with Multiple Groundings and Feedback (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization 75 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 4 | Yang Zhang 0072 COI: co-author | 61 | 3 | 65 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 65 IGD: Token Decisiveness Modeling via Information Gain in LLMs for Personalized Recommendation (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 5 | Xuanhua Yang assigned | 60 | 3 | 84 Breaking the Relevance-Diversity Seesaw: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning with RL for Industrial Novelty Recommendation (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization 75 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
|
| 6 | Bo Chen 0023 | 60 | 3 | 62 Generative Representational Learning of Foundation Models for Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 61 How Can Recommender Systems Benefit from Large Language Models: A Survey (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 7 | Jiancan Wu COI: co-author | 60 | 3 | 61 Larger or Smaller Reward Margins to Select Preferences for LLM Alignment? (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 61 AlphaDPO: Adaptive Reward Margin for Direct Preference Optimization (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 8 | Jieming Zhu assigned | 58 | 3 | 74 EAGER-LLM: Enhancing Large Language Models as Recommenders through Exogenous Behavior-Semantic Integration (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 EAGER: Two-Stream Generative Recommender with Behavior-Semantic Collaboration (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 9 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 58 | 3 | 61 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 60 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 10 | Qijiong Liu assigned | 55 | 3 | 69 RecBase: Generative Foundation Model Pretraining for Zero-Shot Recommendation (2025) Generative Retrieval and Recommendation Architectures 61 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 11 | Shuchang Liu 0001 COI: co-author | 54 | 3 | 80 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 68 Recommendation as Language Processing (RLP): A Unified Pretrain, Personalized Prompt & Predict Paradigm (P5) (2022) Knowledge Infusion and Open-World Augmentation |
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| 12 | Yupeng Hou | 54 | 3 | 64 Inductive Generative Recommendation via Retrieval-based Speculation (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 63 Multi-Behavior Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 13 | Han Li 0005 | 53 | 3 | 64 OneSug: The Unified End-to-End Generative Framework for E-commerce Query Suggestion (2026) Recommendation with Search and Ranking 59 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 14 | Junwei Pan COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 83 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 65 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 15 | Keqin Bao COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 65 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 65 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 16 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 52 | 3 | 62 DiffGRM: Diffusion-based Generative Recommendation Model (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 57 OneLoc: Geo-Aware Generative Recommender Systems for Local Life Service (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 17 | Yongqi Li 0001 COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 73 Bridging Items and Language: A Transition Paradigm for Large Language Model-Based Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 18 | Hao Liu 0078 | 51 | 3 | 61 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 47 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 19 | Hao Deng 0011 | 51 | 3 | 62 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 59 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 20 | Wei Guo 0006 | 51 | 3 | 64 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Unifying Retrieval and Ranking with a Single Generative Recommendation Model (2025) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 61 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 22 | Jianling Wang | 50 | 3 | 61 Fresh Content Recommendation at Scale: A Multi-funnel Solution and the Potential of LLMs (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 60 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 23 | Huifeng Guo COI: co-author | 50 | 3 | 66 LLMTreeRec: Unleashing the Power of Large Language Models for Cold-Start Recommendations (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Unifying Retrieval and Ranking with a Single Generative Recommendation Model (2025) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 24 | Ed H. Chi | 50 | 3 | 65 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 60 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 25 | Lichan Hong | 50 | 3 | 64 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 Recommender Systems with Generative Retrieval (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 26 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 50 | 3 | 63 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization 60 GenSAR: Unifying Balanced Search and Recommendation with Generative Retrieval (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 29 | Jie Jiang 0015 COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 83 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 63 Incremental Learning for LLM-based Tokenization and Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 30 | Yang Song 0008 COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 60 GenSAR: Unifying Balanced Search and Recommendation with Generative Retrieval (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking 51 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) LLM-Enhanced Collaborative Filtering |
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| 31 | Yu Zhang 0206 | 49 | 3 | 62 MMQ: Multimodal Mixture-of-Quantization Tokenization for Semantic ID Generation and User Behavioral Adaptation (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 62 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 33 | Bo Peng 0009 | 49 | 3 | 53 eCeLLM: Generalizing Large Language Models for E-commerce from Large-scale, High-quality Instruction Data (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 52 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 34 | Jinxin Hu | 49 | 3 | 70 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 62 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |