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Handling abstract submissions for conferences can be overwhelming. Too many emails, messy spreadsheets, and missed deadlines can quickly lead to confusion and delays. If you’re dealing with these challenges, you’re not alone.
An abstract management system can solve these problems. It helps you collect submissions, assign reviewers, and keep communication organized — all in one place. But are you using these tools effectively?
In this guide, we’ll show you how abstract management systems work and why they’re essential. Whether you’re organizing a large conference or a small workshop, you’ll learn how to stay on track and make the process smooth and stress-free.
Keep reading to discover how it simplifies collecting abstracts, assigning reviewers, and coordinating feedback. With the right system, you can streamline the call-for-papers process, ensure timely reviews, and improve communication — making your event planning smoother and more efficient.
Abstract management is the process of collecting, reviewing, organizing, and scheduling abstracts (such as papers or presentations) for events like conferences or symposiums.
The process helps event organizers manage submissions from the initial abstract submission to the final presentation, ensuring smooth preparation and coordination for academic conferences, industry events, and research symposiums. By streamlining this, events can be more organized and professional.
An abstract management system is a software that simplifies the entire process by allowing event organizers to handle everything from submission to scheduling through a centralized platform.
Typically, participants submit their abstracts through an online submission portal, which is integrated into the overall conference management system, further streamlining both event and abstract management.
This is particularly beneficial in conference management, where multiple tasks, such as assigning reviewers, communicating with participants, and organizing sessions, need to be efficiently managed.
By using an abstract manager, these tasks can be automated, reducing manual effort and ensuring a smoother process.
From automating manual tasks to providing detailed analytics, these systems provide the following benefits for event organizers, helping them manage even large-scale events effortlessly:
Below is a detailed, step-by-step process to guide you through the various stages of handling abstract submissions, reviews, and notifications, ultimately leading to a well-structured and engaging event agenda.
Identify and recruit experts knowledgeable in the relevant fields and topics of your event. Ensure you have a diverse panel that can cover different categories, disciplines, and perspectives.
Consider reaching out to previous speakers, respected professionals, or academics in your network. Establish clear expectations regarding deadlines, review criteria, and workload to ensure efficiency.
Developing clear submission guidelines is crucial to ensure a smooth and organized abstract submission process. These guidelines help authors understand expectations and minimize errors, making it easier for organizers to manage submissions efficiently.
Establish a clear timeline to manage each phase of the process. Key milestones should include:
Design a comprehensive and user-friendly submission form that captures all necessary details. Consider including:
Create a promotional strategy to generate awareness and encourage submissions. Effective tactics include:
Select an abstract management software that covers the end-to-end process. Look for benefits such as:
Setting up an abstract management system requires a strategic approach to ensure that submission, review, and scheduling processes are handled efficiently.
Once you announce your call for papers, you want to be fully prepared for when the submissions start rolling in. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up abstract management for your event, based on deep research and best practices:
When evaluating software, consider features like:
Set up your submission portal with customizable guidelines. These should align with your session types, such as keynotes, workshops, or panel discussions.
Ensure the submission form captures all required details, including abstract title, session length, topic areas, and specific goals like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations. Tailor the submission fields based on the event’s requirements.
Set clear guidelines for abstract submission to ensure participants know what’s expected. Common details include:
Define the submission timeline and decide whether you want an open call for all potential participants or restrict it to invited speakers.
During this phase, it’s essential to plan for late-breaking abstracts, if applicable. Always make sure that submission deadlines are clear and enforced. Some events may opt for early submissions to gauge interest or ensure high-quality contributions early in the process.
The submission portal should be accessible, user-friendly, and integrated into your event’s website. Ensure that the portal can:
Once abstracts are submitted, you’ll need to assign them to reviewers. The review process includes:
After submissions are collected, review dates come into play to ensure abstracts are evaluated within a structured timeline.
Organizers assign submissions to reviewers and set firm deadlines for evaluations, providing clear guidelines and scoring rubrics. Progress is monitored via the abstract management system, and automated notifications keep reviewers on track.
Design a customized scoring system to reflect your content goals, including criteria like relevance, innovation, and clarity. If your event requires, you can implement multiple review rounds, such as an initial abstract review followed by a full paper review.
This allows for more in-depth analysis and feedback. Reviewers can provide detailed comments and scores that align with the event’s overall objectives.
Set up automated emails to keep participants informed about key milestones. These can include confirmation of submission receipt, reviewer assignments, and status updates on acceptance, rejection, or revision.
This automated communication reduces the workload on organizers while ensuring everyone is kept in the loop. Set up your abstract management system to:
Once abstracts are reviewed and accepted, organize them into event sessions, posters or ppts such as keynotes, panels, and workshops. Use the software’s agenda management tools to:
After submissions are finalized, use the system to generate reports, assess submission trends, and provide insights to improve future event management. Consider offering attendees access to finalized abstracts or creating a digital library for ongoing reference.
A robust abstract management system provides detailed reports on submission trends, review progress, and overall quality. You can:
Integrate your abstract management system with vFairs and key event tools to streamline workflows. Connect with registration systems to automate participant data, event marketing tools like HubSpot for promotions, and virtual/hybrid platforms for content delivery.
Sync with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) for relationship management, CMS platforms (e.g., WordPress) to publish abstracts, and event mobile apps for attendee access to event content.
vFairs offers a robust abstract management system that covers the full lifecycle of submissions, from entry to event integration, providing a smooth experience for both organizers and participants.
vFairs provides an intuitive submission portal where speakers and presenters can easily upload abstracts, papers, or presentations. The system allows organizers to tailor submission forms based on specific event requirements, making it easy to capture critical information like presenter details, abstract titles, and topic areas.
This customization ensures the right information is collected upfront, reducing back-and-forth with submitters.
Here’s how user profiles are set up and associated with relevant forms:
The system takes the complexity out of reviewer assignment by offering automated matching based on reviewer expertise. This feature not only speeds up the process but ensures that each submission is evaluated by the most relevant experts.
Additionally, manual override options allow organizers to assign submissions directly when necessary, providing full flexibility. This ensures accurate, fair, and timely reviews, which is critical for maintaining the integrity of academic or industry conferences.
vFairs supports both single-blind and double-blind peer review processes, giving organizers the flexibility to choose the format that best suits their event.
For events requiring strict confidentiality, the double-blind feature ensures that neither reviewers nor submitters know each other’s identities, promoting unbiased evaluations. This versatility makes vFairs highly adaptable for a wide range of conferences, from academic gatherings to corporate events.
Managing large volumes of submissions is simplified through features like bulk reviewer assignment and automated reminders. This saves organizers significant time, especially when handling hundreds or thousands of abstracts.
Reviewers can easily log into a centralized platform to access their assignments, while automated notifications keep both submitters and reviewers informed about important deadlines.
This automation helps prevent missed deadlines and miscommunication, making the process far more efficient for large-scale events.
With vFairs, organizers can customize review forms and scoring criteria based on the event’s specific goals. This might include technical merit, innovation, or relevance to specific event tracks.
Reviewers can score abstracts on multiple parameters or provide detailed qualitative feedback. This flexibility ensures that submissions are evaluated according to the unique standards of the event, providing a more tailored review process.
vFairs takes reporting and analytics to the next level with built-in tools that offer advanced filtering and average score calculations. This allows organizers to analyze submission trends, track scoring patterns, and even identify potential biases in the review process.
These insights can be crucial for making data-driven decisions, such as identifying which topics resonate most with participants or which areas need improvement for future events.
Once abstracts are reviewed and approved, vFairs makes it easy to integrate them directly into the event agenda. Organizers can schedule presentations, add a poster hall, group abstracts into relevant sessions (like keynotes, workshops, or panels), and plan the event timeline without needing to use external tools. They can also allow on-demand availability for sessions.
This seamless workflow ensures that once an abstract is accepted, it becomes an integral part of the overall event, reducing the manual workload of re-entering or adjusting data in separate systems.
vFairs automates the entire communication process by sending notifications at key stages—submission confirmation, reviewer assignment, and acceptance or rejection updates.
Automated reminders keep participants informed about upcoming deadlines, while notifications to reviewers help ensure timely feedback. This reduces the administrative burden on event organizers and ensures no participant is left in the dark about their submission status.
One of vFairs’ standout features is its scalability. The platform can handle events of any size, whether you’re dealing with a small academic gathering or a large international conference with thousands of submissions.
Its infrastructure is designed to handle high volumes of submissions, reviewer feedback, and communication, without compromising performance or user experience. This scalability makes vFairs a versatile solution for any event organizer, no matter how big or small the event may be.
A renowned global tech startup chose vFairs abstract management software to handle the large volume of abstract submissions and automate the manual review process.
with a global reach faced significant challenges due to a large volume of abstract submissions and a complex manual process for assigning reviewers.
The event organizers faced several issues:
vFairs provided solutions to these challenges:
When selecting the right abstract management software, consider the following factors:
Best for: comprehensive abstract management, peer reviews and event integration
vFairs Abstract Management System provides a seamless, all-in-one solution for collecting, reviewing, and organizing abstracts for conferences and events. With features like customizable submission portals, automated reviewer assignments, and real-time progress tracking, it significantly reduces the manual effort required to manage submissions.
Our platform also offers built-in analytics and reporting, helping organizers make data-driven decisions. Whether managing a small conference or large-scale event, vFairs delivers scalability, efficiency, and an optimized experience for both organizers and participants.
Best for: customization in abstract review
Eventify’s Abstract Management System offers a streamlined solution for collecting, managing, and reviewing abstracts. With a user-friendly portal, automated reviewer assignment, and customizable criteria, Eventify streamlines the process for organizers and participants.
Eventify’s Abstract Management System provides useful tools like a user-friendly portal and customizable criteria. However, the approval and feedback workflow still needs refinement to eliminate inefficiencies reported by users.
Best for: grant and award submissions
Reviewr provides a comprehensive solution for managing submissions across various programs, including awards, grants, and scholarships. The platform enhances efficiency by streamlining submission collection, automating reviewer assignments, and centralizing communication.
While Reviewr allows for some customization, users have noted that there are constraints on how review criteria can be set up.
Best for: peer-reviewed academic events
Fourwaves is an abstract management and peer-review software developed by academic researchers and conference organizers to streamline the abstract submission and review process. Its drag-and-drop form builder enables organizers to customize submission forms, with default fields for title, authors, and abstract, while allowing additional fields for categorizing submissions by topic, presentation type, or track.
A notable limitation of Fourwaves in terms of abstract management is its constraints on the free and Essential packages, which may not accommodate all conference needs. Specifically, these packages have limitations on the number of abstract submissions allowed, which can be a significant drawback for larger conferences that expect a high volume of submissions.
Best for: managing multi-track abstract submissions
Ex Ordo is a conference abstract management software that simplifies abstract and paper submissions, peer reviews, and author notifications. The platform allows organizers to structure events with single or multiple tracks and customize submission forms to gather relevant information.
While Ex Ordo allows for some customization, users have noted that it may not provide the level of flexibility needed to tailor the review criteria and workflows to specific conference requirements.
Check out this detailed guide on the best abstract management software.
Managing abstract submissions for conferences can be a complex and time-consuming process, but with the right abstract management system, event organizers can streamline every aspect, from submission and review to scheduling and communication. By automating tasks, ensuring accuracy, and improving reviewer coordination, these platforms enhance efficiency, maintain fairness, and create a seamless experience for both organizers and participants.
Choosing the right system depends on your event size, complexity, and specific needs—whether it’s peer-reviewed academic conferences, industry symposiums, or large-scale global events.
To optimize your abstract management workflow, focus on automation, customization, and integration. Leveraging data-driven insights, efficient reviewer assignment, and real-time communication ensures a well-organized and engaging conference experience.
With the right tools and strategies, your event will run smoother, engage more participants, and foster valuable discussions that drive innovation and knowledge-sharing.
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