Conference management system

Conference management system

A conference management system is web-based software that supports the organization of scientific conferences. It helps the program chair(s), the conference organizers, the authors and the reviewers in their respective activities.

A conference management system can be regarded as a domain-specific content management system. Similar systems are used today by editors of scientific journals.

Functionality

Typical functions and workflows supported by conference management systems include:

  • Receiving paper submissions (PDF upload, collection of bibliographic metadata)
  • Anonymizing submissions
  • Collecting reviewers' topic preferences
  • Collecting conflicts of interest
  • Assigning reviewers to papers
  • Disseminating submissions to reviewers
  • Collecting reviews
  • Monitoring review coverage
  • Sharing reviews among the program committee
  • Ensuring independence of reviews
    (reviewers cannot see other reviews for a submission before they have submitted their own)
  • Providing a per-submission discussion forum for the reviewers
  • Ranking reviews and setting acceptance threshold
  • Anonymizing reviews
  • Reporting reviewers' comments and program committee decision to authors
  • Collecting final accepted versions

Some systems offer additional functions that go beyond supporting only the peer-review process:

  • Creating a conference website and program
  • Registering attendees
  • Publishing proceedings