Beyond the Single Path: Divergent Reasoning for LLM-based Recommendation
sigir26-207 · Full research paper · Guojia An, Jie Zou, Yi Yang, Shuai Qin, Weikang Guo, Jinyu Guo, Yang Yang
LLM-Based Sequential Recommendation · 50% Generative Recommendation and Item T · 50%
Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated strong potential in recommendations due to their powerful reasoning capabilities. However, existing methods typically rely on a single reasoning path to drive the entire Top-K recommendations. This paradigm is prone to reasoning path collapse, where limiting exploration of potentially superior and diverse reasoning paths within the LLMs space. As a result, both the accuracy and diversity of the recommendation outcomes are constrained.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 56 | 68 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 68 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 53 Bridging Textual-Collaborative Gap through Semantic Codes for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 2 | Han Li 0005 | 51 | 68 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 58 Lasso: Large Language Model-based User Simulator for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2025) User Simulation for Interactive Systems 55 OneSug: The Unified End-to-End Generative Framework for E-commerce Query Suggestion (2026) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 49 |
Area-chair candidates (5)
| Maolin Wang 0001 assigned | 49 | 15 papers | |
| Yanan Niu | 48 | 15 papers | |
| Kun Gai | 48 | 5 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia | 48 | 10 papers | |
| Leyu Lin | 47 | 15 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 | 58 | 3 | 76 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 68 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 2 | Yang Zhang 0072 COI: co-author | 56 | 3 | 76 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 76 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 3 | Bowen Zheng 0005 assigned | 56 | 3 | 68 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 68 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 4 | Jizhi Zhang | 54 | 3 | 76 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 71 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 5 | Chongming Gao | 54 | 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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| 6 | Bo Chen 0023 COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 69 ReLLa: Retrieval-enhanced Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 63 Full-Stack Optimized Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 7 | Jieming Zhu | 51 | 3 | 61 ROMA: Recommendation-Oriented Language Model Adaptation Using Multi-Modal Multi-Domain Item Sequences (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 60 EAGER-LLM: Enhancing Large Language Models as Recommenders through Exogenous Behavior-Semantic Integration (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 8 | Han Li 0005 assigned | 51 | 3 | 68 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 58 Lasso: Large Language Model-based User Simulator for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2025) User Simulation for Interactive Systems |
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| 9 | Jianling Wang | 51 | 3 | 58 A Hierarchical Self-Attentive Model for Recommending User-Generated Item Lists (2019) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 56 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 10 | Bo Peng 0009 | 51 | 3 | 58 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 55 eCeLLM: Generalizing Large Language Models for E-commerce from Large-scale, High-quality Instruction Data (2024) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 11 | Xuanhua Yang | 50 | 3 | 70 Breaking the Relevance-Diversity Seesaw: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning with RL for Industrial Novelty Recommendation (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization 60 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 12 | Shuchang Liu 0001 | 50 | 3 | 64 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 63 Recommendation as Language Processing (RLP): A Unified Pretrain, Personalized Prompt & Predict Paradigm (P5) (2022) Knowledge Infusion and Open-World Augmentation |
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| 13 | Junwei Pan | 49 | 3 | 78 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 71 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 14 | Fei Sun 0001 | 49 | 3 | 54 Intent Preference Decoupling for User Representation on Online Recommender System (2020) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 53 XDM: Improving Sequential Deep Matching with Unclicked User Behaviors for Recommender System (2022) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 15 | Lantao Hu | 49 | 3 | 54 Distinguished Quantized Guidance for Diffusion-based Sequence Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 53 Modeling User Fatigue for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 17 | Huifeng Guo COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 76 LLMTreeRec: Unleashing the Power of Large Language Models for Cold-Start Recommendations (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 55 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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| 18 | Yang Song 0008 | 49 | 3 | 51 Understanding and Modeling Passive-Negative Feedback for Short-video Sequential Recommendation (2023) Multi-Behavior Recommendation 51 Mixed Attention Network for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation |
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| 19 | Hao Liu 0078 | 49 | 3 | 67 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 48 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 20 | Jiancan Wu COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 66 Customizing Language Models with Instance-wise LoRA for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 61 LLaRA: Large Language-Recommendation Assistant (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 21 | Yupeng Hou | 49 | 3 | 57 Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Rankers for Recommender Systems (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 54 Multi-Behavior Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 22 | Wei Guo 0006 | 49 | 3 | 55 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 55 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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| 23 | Ed H. Chi | 48 | 3 | 72 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 24 | Yongxin Ni | 48 | 3 | 53 Bridging NIP and MLM: A Unified Meta-Learning Framework for Sequential Recommendation (2026) Meta-Learning for Cold-Start Recommendation 52 Efficient and Effective Adaptation of Multimodal Foundation Models in Sequential Recommendation (2025) Multimodal Generative Recommendation |
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| 26 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 48 | 3 | 57 MoRE: A Mixture of Reflectors Framework for Large Language Model-Based Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 54 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 29 | Qijiong Liu | 48 | 3 | 55 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 54 ONCE: Boosting Content-based Recommendation with Both Open- and Closed-source Large Language Models (2024) LLM-Derived Knowledge Infusion |
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| 30 | Lichan Hong | 47 | 3 | 71 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 51 Recommender Systems with Generative Retrieval (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 31 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 47 | 3 | 54 OneLoc: Geo-Aware Generative Recommender Systems for Local Life Service (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 53 FIM: Frequency-Aware Multi-View Interest Modeling for Local-Life Service Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 32 | Seongmin Park 0002 | 47 | 3 | 55 Temporal Linear Item-Item Model for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 53 MUFFIN: Mixture of User-Adaptive Frequency Filtering for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 33 | Jie Jiang 0015 | 47 | 3 | 71 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 Incremental Learning for LLM-based Tokenization and Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 34 | Yu Zhang 0206 | 47 | 3 | 70 MMQ: Multimodal Mixture-of-Quantization Tokenization for Semantic ID Generation and User Behavioral Adaptation (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 57 HeterRec: Heterogeneous Information Transformer for Scalable Sequential Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |