research-article

An attention-based deep learning method for solving the cold-start and sparsity issues of recommender systems

Authors:

Narges Heidari,

Abbas KoochariAuthors Info & Claims

Volume 256, Issue C

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2022.109835

Published: 28 November 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Matrix Factorization is a successful approach for generating an effective recommender system. However, most existing matrix factorization methods suffer from the sparsity and cold-start issues of the user-item matrix as the primary information source of recommender systems. Besides, they are not much scalable to apply to large real-world applications. A main idea to overcome the cold-start and sparsity issues is to use additional information sources such as user/item profiles or user reviews on items. In this paper, a novel Attention-based Deep Learning Recommender System, so-called ADLRS, is proposed to employ the information sources in the matrix factorization method framework. The proposed method uses a language model to represent contextual information such that important features are effectively embedded. Moreover, a deep autoencoder reduces the dimensionality of item vectors embedded by the language model. Then, these vectors are used as regularization terms in the matrix factorization framework to form an objective function. Then, an iterative algorithm is designed to solve the objective function and provide a method prediction of unknown rating values. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves superior performance compared to other state-of-the-art ones in most cases. Moreover, the improvement rate for sparse datasets and cold items proves that the proposed method effectively deals with sparsity, cold start and scalability problems.

Highlights

•

An attention-based deep learning recommender system called ADLRS is proposed.

•

ADLRS incorporates profiles of items with the framework of matrix factorization.

•

The BERT language model is used to represents item profiles in the form of vectors.

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A deep autoencoder is used to extract effective features and reduce the dimensionality of vectors.

•

An iterative method is used to solve the objective function and predict unknown ratings.

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Cited By

Yu DZhou XNoorian AHazratifard M(2025)An AI-driven social media recommender system leveraging smartphone and IoT dataThe Journal of Supercomputing10.1007/s11227-024-06722-581:1Online publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11227-024-06722-5
Karabila IDarraz NEl-Ansari AAlami NEl mallahi M(2024)Enhanced E-commerce Recommender System Based on Deep Learning and Ensemble ApproachesProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Networking, Intelligent Systems and Security10.1145/3659677.3659747(1-8)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659677.3659747
Devika PMilton A(2024)Book recommendation system: reviewing different techniques and approachesInternational Journal on Digital Libraries10.1007/s00799-024-00403-725:4(803-824)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00799-024-00403-7
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Index Terms

An attention-based deep learning method for solving the cold-start and sparsity issues of recommender systems
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Machine learning
    1. Machine learning approaches
2. Information systems
  1. Information retrieval
    1. Retrieval tasks and goals
  2. Information systems applications

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Published In

cover image Knowledge-Based Systems

Knowledge-Based Systems Volume 256, Issue C

Nov 2022

755 pages

ISSN:0950-7051

Issue’s Table of Contents

Elsevier B.V.

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Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.

Netherlands

Publication History

Published: 28 November 2022

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Cited By

Yu DZhou XNoorian AHazratifard M(2025)An AI-driven social media recommender system leveraging smartphone and IoT dataThe Journal of Supercomputing10.1007/s11227-024-06722-581:1Online publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11227-024-06722-5
Karabila IDarraz NEl-Ansari AAlami NEl mallahi M(2024)Enhanced E-commerce Recommender System Based on Deep Learning and Ensemble ApproachesProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Networking, Intelligent Systems and Security10.1145/3659677.3659747(1-8)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659677.3659747
Devika PMilton A(2024)Book recommendation system: reviewing different techniques and approachesInternational Journal on Digital Libraries10.1007/s00799-024-00403-725:4(803-824)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00799-024-00403-7
Cai RLu RChen WHao Z(2024)Counterfactual contextual bandit for recommendation under delayed feedbackNeural Computing and Applications10.1007/s00521-024-09800-036:23(14599-14613)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00521-024-09800-0

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