HI-Series Algorithms A Hybrid of Substance Diffusion Algorithm and Collaborative Filtering

Recommendation systems face the challenge of balancing accuracy and diversity, as traditional collaborative filtering (CF) and network-based diffusion algorithms exhibit complementary limitations. While item-based CF (ItemCF) enhances diversity through item similarity, it compromises accuracy. Conversely, mass diffusion (MD) algorithms prioritize accuracy by favoring popular items but lack diversity. To address this trade-off, we propose the HI-series algorithms, hybrid models integrating ItemCF with diffusion-based approaches (MD, HHP, BHC, BD) through a nonlinear combination controlled by parameter $\epsilon$. This hybridization leverages ItemCF's diversity and MD's accuracy, extending to advanced diffusion models (HI-HHP, HI-BHC, HI-BD) for enhanced performance. Experiments on MovieLens, Netflix, and RYM datasets demonstrate that HI-series algorithms significantly outperform their base counterparts. In sparse data ($20\%$ training), HI-MD achieves a $0.8\%$-$4.4\%$ improvement in F1-score over MD while maintaining higher diversity (Diversity@20: 459 vs. 396 on MovieLens). For dense data ($80\%$ training), HI-BD improves F1-score by $2.3\%$-$5.2\%$ compared to BD, with diversity gains up to $18.6\%$. Notably, hybrid models consistently enhance novelty in sparse settings and exhibit robust parameter adaptability. The results validate that strategic hybridization effectively breaks the accuracy-diversity trade-off, offering a flexible framework for optimizing recommendation systems across data sparsity levels.