LLM-EDT: Large Language Models Enhanced Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation with Dual-phase Training
sigir26-223 · Full research paper · Z LIU, Qidong Liu, Wanyu Wang, Yejing Wang, Pengyue Jia, Tong Xu, Wei Jen Huang, Chong Chen, Xiangyu Zhao
Sequential and Session-based Recomme · 25% LLM-Derived Knowledge Infusion · 25% LLM-Based Sequential Recommendation · 17% Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendati · 17%
Abstract
Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (CDSR) has been proposed to enrich user-item interactions by incorporating information from various domains. Despite current progress, the domain imbalance issue and domain transition issue hinder further development of CDSR. The former presents a phenomenon where interactions in one domain dominate the entire behavior, leading to difficulty in capturing domain-specific features in the other domain. The latter points to the difficulty in capturing users' cross-domain preferences within the mixed interaction sequence, resulting in poor next-item prediction performance for specific domains. With world knowledge and powerful reasoning abilities, Large Language Models (LLMs) partially alleviate the above issues by functioning as both a generator and an encoder. However, current LLMs-enhanced CDSR methods are still under exploration, which fail to recognize the irrelevant noise and rough profiling problems. Thus, to address the aforementioned challenges, we propose an LLMs Enhanced Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation with Dual-phase Training (LLM-EDT). To address the domain imbalance issue while minimizing irrelevant noise, we propose the transferable item augmenter to adaptively generate possible cross-domain behaviors for users. Then, to alleviate the domain transition issue, we introduce a dual-phase training strategy to empower the domain-specific thread with a domain-shared background. As for the rough profiling problem, we devise a domain-aware profiling module to summarize the user's preference in each domain and adaptively aggregate them to generate comprehensive user profiles. The experiments on three public datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed LLM-EDT. To ease reproducibility, we have released the detailed code online {https://github.com/Applied-Machine-Learning-Lab/SIGIR26_LLM-EDT}. © 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hao Liu 0078 | 58 | 82 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 50 MCRPL: A Pretrain, Prompt, and Fine-tune Paradigm for Non-overlapping Many-to-one Cross-domain Recommendation (2024) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR 49 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 2 | Chen Wang 0052 | 53 | 61 Pre-Training with Transferable Attention for Addressing Market Shifts in Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 61 Cluster-Aware Item Prompt Learning for Session-Based Recommendation (2025) LLM-Enhanced Sequential Recommendation 54 Sequential Recommendation with Auxiliary Item Relationships via Multi-Relational Transformer (2022) Graph-Based Sequential and Session Recommendation |
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| 3 | Lingling Yi | 48 | 76 PRECISE: Pre-training and Fine-tuning Sequential Recommenders with Collaborative and Semantic Information (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 66 TRAWL: External Knowledge-Enhanced Recommendation with LLM Assistance (2025) LLM-Derived Knowledge Infusion 49 Item-Provider Co-learning for Sequential Recommendation (2022) Graph Contrastive and Self-Supervised Learning |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Leyu Lin | 58 |
Area-chair candidates (7)
| Leyu Lin assigned | 58 | 15 papers | |
| Yanan Niu | 54 | 15 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia COI: author | 54 | 10 papers | |
| Maolin Wang 0001 COI: co-author | 54 | 15 papers | |
| Weiming Liu 0005 COI: co-author | 53 | 8 papers | |
| Kun Gai COI: co-author | 52 | 5 papers | |
| Jun Xu 0001 | 49 | 2 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bo Chen 0023 COI: co-author | 60 | 3 | 90 ReLLa: Retrieval-enhanced Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 87 Full-Stack Optimized Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 2 | Hao Liu 0078 assigned | 58 | 3 | 82 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 50 MCRPL: A Pretrain, Prompt, and Fine-tune Paradigm for Non-overlapping Many-to-one Cross-domain Recommendation (2024) Domain Adaptation and Disentangled Representation for CDR |
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| 4 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 57 | 3 | 78 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 56 Autonomous Reasoning-Retrieval for Large Language Model Based Recommendation (2025) Reasoning-Intensive Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 5 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 COI: co-author | 56 | 3 | 67 LLaRA: Large Language-Recommendation Assistant (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 53 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 6 | Jianling Wang | 56 | 3 | 66 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 66 Fresh Content Recommendation at Scale: A Multi-funnel Solution and the Potential of LLMs (2024) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 7 | Huifeng Guo COI: co-author | 54 | 3 | 63 SELF: Surrogate-light Feature Selection with Large Language Models in Deep Recommender Systems (2025) LLM-Derived Knowledge Infusion 55 LLM4Tag: Automatic Tagging System for Information Retrieval via Large Language Models (2025) Domain-Specific and Structured Retrieval |
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| 9 | Junwei Pan COI: co-author | 54 | 3 | 70 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 66 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 12 | Yang Song 0008 | 53 | 3 | 64 Mixed Attention Network for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 61 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) LLM-Enhanced Collaborative Filtering |
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| 13 | Jiangxia Cao | 53 | 3 | 64 CDSRNP: Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation via Neural Process (2025) Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation 64 Contrastive Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2022) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation |
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| 14 | Jiancan Wu | 53 | 3 | 77 Customizing Language Models with Instance-wise LoRA for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 73 LLaRA: Large Language-Recommendation Assistant (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 15 | Bo Peng 0009 | 53 | 3 | 57 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 54 Modeling Sequences as Star Graphs to Address Over-Smoothing in Self-Attentive Sequential Recommendation (2024) Graph-Based Sequential and Session Recommendation |
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| 16 | Chen Wang 0052 assigned | 53 | 3 | 61 Pre-Training with Transferable Attention for Addressing Market Shifts in Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 61 Cluster-Aware Item Prompt Learning for Session-Based Recommendation (2025) LLM-Enhanced Sequential Recommendation |
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| 17 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 53 | 3 | 67 MoRE: A Mixture of Reflectors Framework for Large Language Model-Based Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 64 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 19 | Jieming Zhu | 53 | 3 | 77 ROMA: Recommendation-Oriented Language Model Adaptation Using Multi-Modal Multi-Domain Item Sequences (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 65 Towards Open-World Recommendation with Knowledge Augmentation from Large Language Models (2024) Knowledge Infusion and Open-World Augmentation |
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| 21 | Fei Sun 0001 COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 55 SDM: Sequential Deep Matching Model for Online Large-scale Recommender System (2019) Multi-Behavior and Multi-Interest Sequential Recommendation 54 BERT4Rec: Sequential Recommendation with Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (2019) Graph-Based Sequential and Session Recommendation |
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| 22 | Chongming Gao | 52 | 3 | 65 Large Language Models are Learnable Planners for Long-Term Recommendation (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization 56 Tunable LLM-based Proactive Recommendation Agent (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 23 | Han Li 0005 COI: co-author | 52 | 3 | 78 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 63 Lasso: Large Language Model-based User Simulator for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2025) User Simulation for Interactive Systems |
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| 24 | Seongmin Park 0002 | 51 | 3 | 61 MergeRec: Model Merging for Data-Isolated Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2026) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 56 Temporal Linear Item-Item Model for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 25 | Ke Wang 0038 | 51 | 3 | 71 Enhancing Cross-Domain Recommendation with Plug-In Contrastive Representations from Large Language Models (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 64 LLM-Grounded Diffusion for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 26 | Junjie Zhang 0009 | 51 | 3 | 56 Curriculum-scheduled knowledge distillation from multiple pre-trained teachers for multi-domain sequential recommendation (2025) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 54 Frequency-Augmented Mixture-of-Heterogeneous-Experts Framework for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 27 | Lantao Hu COI: co-author | 51 | 3 | 54 Modeling User Fatigue for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation 52 Unsupervised Ranking Ensemble Model for Recommendation (2024) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 28 | Riwei Lai | 51 | 3 | 66 Proxy-Aware Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2023) Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation 64 Proxy-enhanced cross-domain sequential recommendation (2025) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation |
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| 29 | Shuchang Liu 0001 COI: co-author | 50 | 3 | 53 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 53 Recommendation as Language Processing (RLP): A Unified Pretrain, Personalized Prompt & Predict Paradigm (P5) (2022) Knowledge Infusion and Open-World Augmentation |
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| 30 | Chunyang Wang 0001 | 50 | 3 | 55 Contrastive Multi-view Interest Learning for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Graph Contrastive and Self-Supervised Learning 53 MESA: Plugin Meta-Modulation for Transformer-Based Cold-Start Sequential Recommendation (2026) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 31 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 50 | 3 | 54 FIM: Frequency-Aware Multi-View Interest Modeling for Local-Life Service Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 51 MPFormer: Adaptive Framework for Industrial Multi-Task Personalized Sequential Retriever (2025) Multi-Task and Multi-Objective Optimization |
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| 32 | James Caverlee | 50 | 3 | 87 Language Models as Semantic Augmenters for Sequential Recommenders (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 53 Consistency-Aware Recommendation for User-Generated Item List Continuation (2020) Multimodal Recommendation for Domain Applications |
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| 33 | Yong He 0009 | 50 | 3 | 51 Breaking the Length Barrier: LLM-Enhanced CTR Prediction in Long Textual User Behaviors (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 51 An Industrial Framework for Cold-Start Recommendation in Zero-Shot Scenarios (2022) Content and Attribute-Based Cold-Start Recommendation |
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| 34 | Wei Guo 0006 | 49 | 3 | 54 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 52 Dataset Regeneration for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Recommendation Systems and Evaluation |
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| 35 | Jizhi Zhang COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 59 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 53 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 36 | Jinxin Hu | 49 | 3 | 54 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 54 SASNet: Stage-aware Sequential Matching for Online Travel Recommendation (2022) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |