How to Plan and Execute Abstract Management Online
If you’ve ever participated in a scientific conference, you know it’s one of the most content-heavy events you can attend. Not only do organisers have to manage large numbers of submissions, many of which are quite lengthy, but they also allocate submissions to reviewers, schedule, and create books of abstracts.
To ensure you don’t drown in paperwork while trying to sort out thousands of emails and reviews, the first question you should ask yourself before starting an abstract management campaign is “How do I automate?” Online abstract management systems have lots of answers to this one. In this blog post, we look at the entire “submission–review–analysis” flow that can be automated through an online toolkit and help you choose the best solution for your events.
What is abstract management?
If you’re passionate about social sciences and have a bright idea that could create an impact in this field, the obvious move is to attend a scientific conference on social sciences. The challenge here is that you’re probably not the only one who wants to contribute. And that’s where the trouble begins.
To build meaningful narratives for a conference, organisers often collect research abstracts. Once the call for papers is announced, researchers, policy makers, and academicians can submit their original research to a professional committee. The best works are then chosen based on a certain set of criteria and presented at the conference. Basically, abstract management is a set of tasks that must be completed to get a scientific paper from applicant to conference.
How to plan and execute abstract management online
Abstract management software helps you cut down on unnecessary paperwork by collecting submissions in one place. Depending on their features, online platforms also have capabilities for simplified review, scheduling, email automation, and analytics. Based on the example of the 5th International Conference on Social Sciences 2018, which sets specific requirements for abstract submission, we’ve created the following step-by-step flow:
Step 1: Applicants submit their abstracts, along with brief biographies.
Create a standard, mobile-responsive submission form that captures relevant information about a project and its author. What is really fundamental here is ensuring nothing gets lost in the shuffle and making it easy to collect all submissions in one place. We recommend using systems that have a submission collation module for filtering, tracking, and organising submissions.
Step 2: Organisers acknowledge receipt of abstracts within three working days
Your online abstract management system should be a perfect connection builder.
Choose solutions that have an embedded email communication module to interact with applicants and reviewers more efficiently. Personalised email invitations, confirmation letters, and status update templates have to be prepared beforehand. This way, you’ll get tools that will help you minimise manual work through scheduled email blasting.
Step 3: The abstracts undergo a double peer review, and the best works are selected by an international committee.
Sounds like a catch-22, right? Clearly, the process of abstract reviewing is the most challenging aspect, especially if you have to combine different methods of evaluation. Here are four features of a good abstract management review toolkit that will help you nail the entire cycle:
- Separate toolkits for public voting and judging
- Capabilities for building custom groups of reviewers and configurable judging criteria
- Dedicated module for resolving conflicts of interest, such as a judge abstention feature
- A centralised platform for scores and comments from reviewers
Step 4: Manage evaluation results
One of the huge benefits of online abstract management is the possibility to structure and collect the results of the abstract review in one place. Pick a software package that makes it simple to generate custom reports upon review. Once the final decisions have been made, send personalised notifications to applicants, extract reports, and collect abstracts into one comprehensive online book.
Best abstract management platforms
Concentrate on your conference. What are the goals you want to attain with an abstract submission campaign? Who is your target applicant? Who are your reviewers? Are they all located in one place, or do they have to manage the process from different countries? These and other questions will help you choose a resonating abstract management system. Here’s our top three list:
B-Com
Superpowers: An easy-to-use system for reviewing real-time financial tracking and statistics computation
Flexibility and simplified content management—what else could you possibly wish for? Users can easily customise and standardise submission outputs, which helps maintain strong real-time management. For reviewers, there are many benefits as well: an individual portal for scoring submissions, adding comments, and viewing automatically generated statistics.
Judgify
Superpowers: Strong submission collation functionality, separate public voting and judging toolkits, and a reviewer abstention module
Judgify awards management software is a good choice in the category of one-stop solutions. It gives you everything you need to power the full flow without switching to any external tools or platforms. Its highly functional judging toolkit has a module for reviewer abstention, management of diverse criteria, and multiple judges groups. In particular, if you manage an international event with reviewers from different countries, Judgify is the perfect fit.
Smart Abstract
Superpowers: Dedicated module for results presentation and integration with the conference app
Smart Abstract supports a three-step abstract management flow, with dedicated modules for each of these steps. The goal is to automate three core processes: call for papers, abstract management, and planning and presentation. With a strong focus on analytics and results, the software is perfect for conference organisers that want to create a comprehensive book of abstracts or build a training/presentation program based on results.
Conclusion
Planning and executing abstract management online is a process that requires not only a keen eye but tech automation as well. With functional abstract management software, you can reduce the time spent on interaction with applicants and reviewers and collect all documents, scores, and reviews in one place.