Algorithm Selection for Recommender Systems via Meta-Learning on Algorithm Characteristics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Decker, Jarne Mathi, Beel, Joeran
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Decker, Jarne Mathi
Beel, Joeran
author_facet Decker, Jarne Mathi
Beel, Joeran
contents The Algorithm Selection Problem for recommender systems-choosing the best algorithm for a given user or context-remains a significant challenge. Traditional meta-learning approaches often treat algorithms as categorical choices, ignoring their intrinsic properties. Recent work has shown that explicitly characterizing algorithms with features can improve model performance in other domains. Building on this, we propose a per-user meta-learning approach for recommender system selection that leverages both user meta-features and automatically extracted algorithm features from source code. Our preliminary results, averaged over six diverse datasets, show that augmenting a meta-learner with algorithm features improves its average NDCG@10 performance by 8.83% from 0.135 (user features only) to 0.147. This enhanced model outperforms the Single Best Algorithm baseline (0.131) and successfully closes 10.5% of the performance gap to a theoretical oracle selector. These findings show that even static source code metrics provide a valuable predictive signal, presenting a promising direction for building more robust and intelligent recommender systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_04419
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Algorithm Selection for Recommender Systems via Meta-Learning on Algorithm Characteristics
Decker, Jarne Mathi
Beel, Joeran
Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
I.2.m
The Algorithm Selection Problem for recommender systems-choosing the best algorithm for a given user or context-remains a significant challenge. Traditional meta-learning approaches often treat algorithms as categorical choices, ignoring their intrinsic properties. Recent work has shown that explicitly characterizing algorithms with features can improve model performance in other domains. Building on this, we propose a per-user meta-learning approach for recommender system selection that leverages both user meta-features and automatically extracted algorithm features from source code. Our preliminary results, averaged over six diverse datasets, show that augmenting a meta-learner with algorithm features improves its average NDCG@10 performance by 8.83% from 0.135 (user features only) to 0.147. This enhanced model outperforms the Single Best Algorithm baseline (0.131) and successfully closes 10.5% of the performance gap to a theoretical oracle selector. These findings show that even static source code metrics provide a valuable predictive signal, presenting a promising direction for building more robust and intelligent recommender systems.
title Algorithm Selection for Recommender Systems via Meta-Learning on Algorithm Characteristics
topic Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
I.2.m
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04419