DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation

Abstract Recommender systems play an important role in modern digital platforms, but data sparsity has been one of the main challenges in this domain. Traditional solutions usually mitigate this problem by introducing side information, but often face the challenge of poor data quality. This can sign...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hongzan Mao, Baisong Liu, Xueyuan Zhang, Wei Liu, Zijing Wang, Zining Feng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00158-4
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849225848308105216
author Hongzan Mao
Baisong Liu
Xueyuan Zhang
Wei Liu
Zijing Wang
Zining Feng
author_facet Hongzan Mao
Baisong Liu
Xueyuan Zhang
Wei Liu
Zijing Wang
Zining Feng
author_sort Hongzan Mao
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Recommender systems play an important role in modern digital platforms, but data sparsity has been one of the main challenges in this domain. Traditional solutions usually mitigate this problem by introducing side information, but often face the challenge of poor data quality. This can significantly hamper the accuracy of user preference modeling, thus affecting the recommendation effectiveness. Given the rapid development of large language models (LLMs) technology in recent years, with their rich semantic knowledge and powerful generative capabilities, we propose a new framework called DALLRec, which aims to achieve data augmentation by fine-tuning LLMs. The DALLRec framework effectively mitigates the data sparsity problem and significantly improves the overall performance of the recommender system through three core strategies: enhancing user-item interactions, enriching item attributes, and generating high-quality item summaries. We integrated DALLRec with multiple SOTA recommendation models and experimentally verified its effectiveness. The experimental results show that DALLRec can adapt to multiple recommendation models and significantly improve their recommendation performance, providing a new direction for further improving the accuracy of recommendation systems. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/zzerrrro/DALLRec .
format Article
id doaj-art-80b46a3f7fbb455bbcd5f1b3c2570625
institution Kabale University
issn 1319-1578
2213-1248
language English
publishDate 2025-08-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences
spelling doaj-art-80b46a3f7fbb455bbcd5f1b3c25706252025-08-24T11:53:34ZengElsevierJournal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences1319-15782213-12482025-08-0137711910.1007/s44443-025-00158-4DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendationHongzan Mao0Baisong Liu1Xueyuan Zhang2Wei Liu3Zijing Wang4Zining Feng5School of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversitySchool of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversitySchool of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversitySchool of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversitySchool of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversitySchool of Information Science and Engineering, Ningbo UniversityAbstract Recommender systems play an important role in modern digital platforms, but data sparsity has been one of the main challenges in this domain. Traditional solutions usually mitigate this problem by introducing side information, but often face the challenge of poor data quality. This can significantly hamper the accuracy of user preference modeling, thus affecting the recommendation effectiveness. Given the rapid development of large language models (LLMs) technology in recent years, with their rich semantic knowledge and powerful generative capabilities, we propose a new framework called DALLRec, which aims to achieve data augmentation by fine-tuning LLMs. The DALLRec framework effectively mitigates the data sparsity problem and significantly improves the overall performance of the recommender system through three core strategies: enhancing user-item interactions, enriching item attributes, and generating high-quality item summaries. We integrated DALLRec with multiple SOTA recommendation models and experimentally verified its effectiveness. The experimental results show that DALLRec can adapt to multiple recommendation models and significantly improve their recommendation performance, providing a new direction for further improving the accuracy of recommendation systems. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/zzerrrro/DALLRec .https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00158-4Large language modelsRecommendationData augmentationData sparsity
spellingShingle Hongzan Mao
Baisong Liu
Xueyuan Zhang
Wei Liu
Zijing Wang
Zining Feng
DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences
Large language models
Recommendation
Data augmentation
Data sparsity
title DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
title_full DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
title_fullStr DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
title_full_unstemmed DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
title_short DALLRec: an effective data augmentation framework with fine-tuning large language model for recommendation
title_sort dallrec an effective data augmentation framework with fine tuning large language model for recommendation
topic Large language models
Recommendation
Data augmentation
Data sparsity
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00158-4
work_keys_str_mv AT hongzanmao dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation
AT baisongliu dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation
AT xueyuanzhang dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation
AT weiliu dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation
AT zijingwang dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation
AT ziningfeng dallrecaneffectivedataaugmentationframeworkwithfinetuninglargelanguagemodelforrecommendation