{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4412877246","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736563","title":"A Survey on Small Language Models in the Era of Large Language Models: Architecture, Capabilities, and Trustworthiness","display_name":"A Survey on Small Language Models in the Era of Large Language Models: Architecture, Capabilities, and Trustworthiness","publication_year":2025,"publication_date":"2025-08-03","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4412877246","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736563"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3711896.3736563","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736563","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3711896.3736563","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining V.2","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3711896.3736563","any_repository_has_fulltext":null},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5006391718","display_name":"Fali Wang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8321-6365"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130769515","display_name":"Pennsylvania State University","ror":"https://ror.org/04p491231","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Fali Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8321-6365","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5039804358","display_name":"Minhua Lin","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1591-7172"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130769515","display_name":"Pennsylvania State University","ror":"https://ror.org/04p491231","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Minhua Lin","raw_affiliation_strings":["The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1591-7172","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101568942","display_name":"Yao Ma","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4985-8724"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165799507","display_name":"Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute","ror":"https://ror.org/01rtyzb94","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165799507"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yao Ma","raw_affiliation_strings":["Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4985-8724","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165799507"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5109295234","display_name":"Hui Liu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9032-6413"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1311688040","display_name":"Amazon (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/04mv4n011","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hui Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9032-6413","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5090007199","display_name":"Qi He","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5257-6843"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1311688040","display_name":"Amazon (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/04mv4n011","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Qi He","raw_affiliation_strings":["Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5257-6843","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5102008510","display_name":"Xianfeng Tang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-2761"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1311688040","display_name":"Amazon (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/04mv4n011","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xianfeng Tang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-2761","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Amazon, Palo Alto, CA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1311688040"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5040639891","display_name":"Jiliang Tang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7125-3898"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I87216513","display_name":"Michigan State University","ror":"https://ror.org/05hs6h993","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I87216513"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Jiliang Tang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7125-3898","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I87216513"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5062247330","display_name":"Jian Pei","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2200-8711"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170897317","display_name":"Duke University","ror":"https://ror.org/00py81415","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170897317"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Jian Pei","raw_affiliation_strings":["Duke University, Durham, NC, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2200-8711","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Duke University, Durham, NC, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170897317"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5011048500","display_name":"Suhang Wang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3448-4878"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130769515","display_name":"Pennsylvania State University","ror":"https://ror.org/04p491231","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Suhang Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3448-4878","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130769515"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":5,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":null,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":8,"citation_normalized_percentile":null,"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"6173","last_page":"6183"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10028","display_name":"Topic Modeling","score":0.998199999332428,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10028","display_name":"Topic Modeling","score":0.998199999332428,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10181","display_name":"Natural Language Processing Techniques","score":0.9782000184059143,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12026","display_name":"Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)","score":0.9672999978065491,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.7578757405281067},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/architecture","display_name":"Architecture","score":0.6839944124221802},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/trustworthiness","display_name":"Trustworthiness","score":0.668353259563446},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/natural-language-processing","display_name":"Natural language processing","score":0.39060884714126587},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/artificial-intelligence","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","score":0.3575401306152344},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/programming-language","display_name":"Programming language","score":0.3357839584350586},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-architecture","display_name":"Computer architecture","score":0.33017730712890625},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/data-science","display_name":"Data science","score":0.3201565146446228},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-security","display_name":"Computer security","score":0.1404782235622406},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/history","display_name":"History","score":0.08620491623878479}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.7578757405281067},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C123657996","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12271","display_name":"Architecture","level":2,"score":0.6839944124221802},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C153701036","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q659974","display_name":"Trustworthiness","level":2,"score":0.668353259563446},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C204321447","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30642","display_name":"Natural language processing","level":1,"score":0.39060884714126587},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.3575401306152344},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C199360897","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9143","display_name":"Programming language","level":1,"score":0.3357839584350586},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C118524514","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q173212","display_name":"Computer architecture","level":1,"score":0.33017730712890625},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2522767166","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2374463","display_name":"Data science","level":1,"score":0.3201565146446228},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C38652104","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3510521","display_name":"Computer security","level":1,"score":0.1404782235622406},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C95457728","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q309","display_name":"History","level":0,"score":0.08620491623878479},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C166957645","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23498","display_name":"Archaeology","level":1,"score":0.0}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3711896.3736563","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736563","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3711896.3736563","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining V.2","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3711896.3736563","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736563","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3711896.3736563","source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining V.2","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G2389962453","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"W911NF-21-10198","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320323817","funder_display_name":"Universitas Brawijaya"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3798446836","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"17STCIN00001-05-00","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306110","funder_display_name":"U.S. Department of Homeland Security"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G4150318782","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"17STCIN00001","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306110","funder_display_name":"U.S. Department of Homeland Security"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G7452299184","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"W911NF","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320338281","funder_display_name":"Army Research Office"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306110","display_name":"U.S. Department of Homeland Security","ror":"https://ror.org/00jyr0d86"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320307791","display_name":"Cisco Systems","ror":"https://ror.org/03yt1ez60"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320323817","display_name":"Universitas Brawijaya","ror":"https://ror.org/01wk3d929"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320338281","display_name":"Army Research Office","ror":"https://ror.org/05epdh915"}],"has_content":{"pdf":true,"grobid_xml":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4412877246.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4412877246.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":37,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W2990138404","https://openalex.org/W3037831233","https://openalex.org/W3046764764","https://openalex.org/W3103649165","https://openalex.org/W3134354193","https://openalex.org/W3150919882","https://openalex.org/W3172709345","https://openalex.org/W4237238238","https://openalex.org/W4378498814","https://openalex.org/W4379474731","https://openalex.org/W4380995299","https://openalex.org/W4385569968","https://openalex.org/W4385571902","https://openalex.org/W4389519449","https://openalex.org/W4389524162","https://openalex.org/W4389524209","https://openalex.org/W4389524389","https://openalex.org/W4399836557","https://openalex.org/W4400141675","https://openalex.org/W4401042685","https://openalex.org/W4401043412","https://openalex.org/W4401905899","https://openalex.org/W4402667088","https://openalex.org/W4402671025","https://openalex.org/W4403090314","https://openalex.org/W4404781793","https://openalex.org/W4404782007","https://openalex.org/W4404784189","https://openalex.org/W4405153150","https://openalex.org/W4406072150","https://openalex.org/W4406892311","https://openalex.org/W6600120041","https://openalex.org/W6600291067","https://openalex.org/W6600388300","https://openalex.org/W6600433979","https://openalex.org/W6601313673","https://openalex.org/W7035904466"],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W2076536433","https://openalex.org/W90316445","https://openalex.org/W4327743613","https://openalex.org/W2965447900","https://openalex.org/W3199750033","https://openalex.org/W4391815708","https://openalex.org/W2374509987","https://openalex.org/W3163373470","https://openalex.org/W3005856188","https://openalex.org/W2038503502"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Large":[0],"language":[1,28],"models":[2,29],"(LLMs)":[3],"based":[4],"on":[5,135],"Transformer":[6],"architecture":[7],"are":[8],"powerful":[9],"but":[10],"face":[11],"challenges":[12],"with":[13,63,84],"deployment,":[14],"inference":[15,62],"latency,":[16],"and":[17,39,55,108,112],"costly":[18],"fine-tuning.":[19],"These":[20],"limitations":[21],"highlight":[22],"the":[23,58,81,117],"emerging":[24],"potential":[25],"of":[26,61,119,133],"small":[27],"(SLMs),":[30],"which":[31],"can":[32],"either":[33],"replace":[34],"LLMs":[35,85,102],"through":[36],"innovative":[37],"architectures":[38,51],"technologies,":[40,138],"or":[41,47],"assist":[42,100],"them":[43],"as":[44,53],"efficient":[45,113],"proxy":[46,106],"reward":[48],"models.":[49],"Emerging":[50],"such":[52],"Mamba":[54],"xLSTM":[56],"address":[57],"quadratic":[59],"scaling":[60,78],"window":[64],"length":[65],"in":[66,101],"Transformers":[67],"by":[68,86],"enabling":[69],"linear":[70],"scaling.":[71],"To":[72],"maximize":[73],"SLM":[74,137],"performance,":[75],"test-time":[76],"compute":[77,89],"strategies":[79],"reduce":[80],"performance":[82],"gap":[83],"allocating":[87],"extra":[88],"budget":[90],"during":[91],"test":[92],"time.":[93],"Beyond":[94],"standalone":[95],"usage,":[96],"SLMs":[97,120],"could":[98],"also":[99],"via":[103],"weak-to-strong":[104],"learning,":[105],"tuning,":[107],"guarding,":[109],"fostering":[110],"secure":[111],"LLM":[114],"deployment.":[115],"Lastly,":[116],"trustworthiness":[118],"remains":[121],"a":[122,131],"critical":[123],"yet":[124],"underexplored":[125],"research":[126],"area.":[127],"However,":[128],"there":[129],"is":[130],"lack":[132],"tutorials":[134],"cutting-edge":[136],"prompting":[139],"us":[140],"to":[141],"conduct":[142],"one.":[143]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":6},{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":2}],"updated_date":"2026-07-14T23:27:15.235271","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}