About the Workshop
Search (IR) and recommendation (RecSys) have long been developed in parallel, despite serving the same discovery goal over shared item universes. The rise of Large Language Models and agentic systems is collapsing this divide, with unified architectures and generative retrieval increasingly powering both query-driven and feed-driven experiences.
The Unified Search and Recommendation Workshop (USRW) brings together researchers and practitioners from both the IR and RecSys communities to accelerate this unification. Our goals are to:
- Define shared tasks and datasets over a common item universe
- Compare unified architectures (e.g., bi-encoders vs. seq2seq/generative models with semantic IDs)
- Align evaluation across intents, latency, cost, and safety
- Foster cross-pollination between industry practitioners and academic researchers
This is the inaugural edition of USRW — a full-day workshop designed to establish unified search-and-recommendation as a mainstream research and production reality.
Call for Papers
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA · October 2, 2026
Website: https://usrw-workshop.github.io/2026
Submission: EasyChair (select “Unified Search and Recommendation Workshop” as the track)
Contact: loading…
The Unified Search and Recommendation Workshop (USRW 2026) invites submissions exploring the convergence of Information Retrieval (IR) and Recommender Systems (RecSys). Large Language Models, generative retrieval, and agentic architectures are blurring the historical divide between query-driven search and interaction-driven recommendation. This workshop provides a dedicated venue to accelerate that unification.
Topics of Interest
We welcome papers on models, systems, data, and evaluation at the intersection of IR and RecSys. The list below is non-exhaustive, and the parenthetical examples under each item are indicative suggestions rather than strict scope limits — submissions on related themes are welcome.
Submission Guidelines
Review: Double-blind peer review by at least two reviewers.
Submission system: EasyChair — select “Unified Search and Recommendation Workshop” as the track.
Authors should use the ACM Primary Article Template (sigconf format). Submissions must be anonymised for double-blind review.
All accepted papers will be presented at the workshop (oral or poster, selected by the programme committee). A Best Paper Award will recognise outstanding contributions.
In line with the main conference attendance policy, at least one author of each accepted paper must attend the workshop in person. Authors who make a good-faith effort to attend but are unable to do so (e.g., visa denial) will be given an opportunity to present via a proxy presenter.
Proceedings
The workshop is non-archival. Accepted papers will be hosted on the workshop website. Authors retain full rights to submit their work to journals or conferences. We encourage authors to make their papers publicly available on arXiv.
Important Dates
All deadlines are 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth).
These dates follow the timeline suggested by the RecSys 2026 workshop chairs. The submission deadline is intentionally after the main conference notification.
Organizers
Advisory Board
Contact
For questions, reach out at loading…