Services aux conférences Mandl

Quick reference guide: How to use COMS for managing your conference

1. Introduction

The Conference Online Management System (COMS) provides administrative support to conference administrators by structuring and partially automating many of the workflows and the task management aspects that arise during the preparation of a conference. Furthermore, functions to export statistics and details about delegates and their presentations support the creation of derived documents such as conference proceedings.

COMS is configured and runs on the computers of IT Services Mandl. It does therefore not need any IT infrastructure or IT support at the site of the conference organizer, other than the availability of an Internet connection and a current web browser.

All users of COMS will assume one or several of the following roles:

1. System Administrator – This role is exclusively reserved for staff at IT Services Mandl.
2. Chair – The Conference Chair configures the system, assigns roles to users, assigns tasks to reviewers and editors, accepts/rejects papers, exports data, etc. There can be several Chairs for one conference and the Chair can delegate tasks to Conference Administrators.
3. Conference Administrator – The task of Conference Administrators is to support the Chair. They share almost all the privileges of the Chair, except that they cannot assign the roles of ‘Chair’ or ‘Conference Administrator’ to other users.
4. Referee – Referees can indicate the papers they would like to work on (if the bidding feature is activated). Once the Chair or a Conference Administrator has assigned papers to a Referee, he or she will work online on the assignments and give the assessments.
5. Editor – The Editor role will not be needed for all conferences. If Editors are used, they are each assigned a number of conference submissions. They will inspect and – where needed – modify the texts of submissions, in order to ensure a consistent style or formatting and to correct linguistic errors.
6. Author – Any registered COMS user who has submitted a conference paper is automatically assigned the role of ‘Author’. Authors can submit, edit and withdraw their papers.
7. Unprivileged User – Any registered COMS user who has not been assigned any particular role can still edit and maintain his personal profile. As far as the features are activated, any Unprivileged User, can submit conference papers from within COMS (and thereby become an Author) or they can register for participating in the conference. Unprivileged Users can also be reached by bulk email and they might be assigned roles such as Conference Administrator, Referee or Editor by the Chair.

The general workflow of a COMS assisted conference administration is as follows:

1. The Chair configures COMS and assigns roles to the members of the Program Committee and to other assistants.
2. Delegates register and submit papers.
3. Optionally, Reviewers bid for papers.
4. The Chair and Conference Administrators assign papers to Reviewers. (COMS can do that automatically, based on Reviewers’ bids or if bidding is not used, COMS can distribute review tasks statistically.)
5. Reviewers give their assessment.
6. The Chair and Conference Administrators accept or reject submissions and notify Authors by bulk email.
7. Optionally, Editors ensure a common style of all accepted submissions.
8. Optionally, Authors of accepted papers upload camera-ready papers.

Throughout the registration process, Conference Administrators can monitor the progress of tasks and registrations. Data that are ascertained by COMS can be exported in a number of formats.

COMS does not presently handle payments, but it can be used to record the payment or registration status of every participant and to communicate that status to the participants.

Conference Administrators can store notes to themselves with each of the registered COMS users that are not disclosed to delegates.

2. Tasks of any COMS user

2.1 Registering with COMS

With the exception of users who have been registered by the Chair or by a Conference Administrator, users have to register before they can first use the system.

Depending on the features that have been activated by the Chair, prospective users can:

• The Chair configures COMS and assigns roles to the members of the Program Committee and to other assistants.
• Register with the system without any other action.
• Register with the system and simultaneously submit a paper. Optionally they can also register for conference participation at this stage.
• Register with the system and for conference participation at the same time.

Once users are registered they are assigned a user-id and password that allows them to access COMS.

If the automatic mail feature is activated, an acknowledging email with the access details is sent automatically upon registration.

2.2 Editing your personal profile

After logging on to the system, users can update and maintain their personal profile.

3. Tasks of the Chair or Conference Administrator

3.1 Getting started

The user account of the Chair is normally created by the System Administrator. When logging in for the first time, the Chair should update his/her personal details.

The welcome screen will initially contain some default message. By going to

• Configuration → General Items → Welcome Page

it can be fully configured. If you are not comfortable with coding HTML, you can create the contents of your Welcome Page in MS Word and send the file to Conference Service Mandl. We will configure the page for you.

3.2 Configuring COMS – feature activation

Before starting to use COMS, the Chair should go through all items in the Configuration tab. All items can be changed as needed in the course of the approaching conference. Some items, like:

• User Profiles → Types of participant
• Registration status → Items to order
• Registration status → Order status items

can only be changed as long as they are not in use.

Please note: It is important to set the dates for the various tasks correctly, since the corresponding functions will be disabled outside the given date ranges.

3.3 Configuring the automatic email system

Before conducting tasks (like registering new users) which could trigger the sending of automatic emails, the chair should visit the Emails tab.

The option:

• Automatic mail → activate/deactivate

governs which events will trigger the sending of an email.

Next, the email templates under:

• Automatic mail → edit templates

should be inspected and customized for the needs of the current conference project. By using the function ‘Test this template’ that can be found underneath each mail template, the current user can trigger the sending of an email to his/her own email address.

The templates for bulk emails can be configured at the time when they are to be used. Bulk emails are not triggered automatically.

3.4 Registering users

Once COMS is configured, other users can be permitted into the system. This can be achieved by either allowing people to register themselves – see above – or by using the link:

• Participants → Add a Participant

(underneath the filter box, close to the right page border)

3.5 Assigning functions to registered users

Once users have registered or have been registered with COMS, they can be listed by going to the Participants tab. With the Edit function user profiles can be edited and in particular, one or several functions (Editor, Referee, Conference Administrator) can be assigned to any registered user.

Tip: It is instructive for the Chair to register a ‘dummy’ user and to assign different functions to the dummy in order to see how COMS looks for different actors. (Be aware that some functions, like for example the assignment of papers to reviewers, are only available if both papers and reviewers already exist in COMS.)

3.6 Assigning tasks to referees and editors

After the paper submission for the event is closed, the chair can assign the received papers to referees for reviewing. Every paper can be assigned to several referees. During an optional bidding period, referees can state which papers they would like to work on. Tasks can be assigned automatically (based on the bids or statistically if bidding was not used) or manually. Manual and automatic assignment of tasks can also be combined.

If editors are used in order to ensure a consistent style throughout all submissions, a similar task assignment process can be used. There is no bidding process for editors but tasks can also be assigned automatically or manually.

In order to assign tasks go to:

• Review process → Assignments → Assign reviews
• Review process → Assignments → Assign edit tasks

respectively.

3.7 Accepting or rejecting papers, assigning presentation type and session to accepted papers

After the reviewing process is completed, it is the task of the Chair or the Conference Administrator to decide which papers to accept or to reject. The process can be automated, based on the numerical evaluations by the referees; automatic and manual paper acceptance/rejection can be combined.

Please see:

• Review process → Paper selection → Automatic selection
• Review process → Paper selection → Manual selection

The menu item Manual selection permits also the assignment of a particular presentation type (oral, poster, etc.) to each accepted paper. Furthermore, accepted papers can be distributed over the sessions of the conference.

The paper selection and distribution process is supported by graphic displays of statistical data and summaries, giving a quick and precise overview over paper submissions, sessions, presentation types and how many papers are accepted:

• Review process → Progress tracking

4. Tasks of the Referee

If bidding is to be used for the conference, the referee has the possibility to state preferences concerning which paper submission he/she does or does not want to comment on. If it is activated by the Chair, this functionality is available under:

• Review process → Assignments/Enter bids

Once the Chair has assigned papers to a Referee, the assigned papers will be listed under the My reviews tab.

Editors use the link Edit review to view the details of a given conference paper and to give and save their evaluation. If an evaluation is completed, the field This review is complete on the review form should be ticked.

5. Tasks of the Editor

There is no bidding process for editing since editing concerns only style and language, rather than contents. Once the Chair has assigned papers to an Editor, the assigned papers will be listed under the My editing tasks tab. The function Edit displays the details of a submission and permits modifications.

The system records automatically if an entry has been modified. Optionally, an Editor can mark a given entry as completed without actually modifying it, by opening the edit form and saving it without making modifications.

6. Tasks of the Conference Delegate

6.1 Submitting abstracts and camera ready papers

Delegates can submit an abstract during registration, or later under the My submissions tab. The My submissions tab also lists all submitted papers together with their acceptance status. Within the time interval that is given by the Chair, submitted papers can be edited online or withdrawn.

If the current conference uses a two stage submission procedure, camera ready versions of accepted papers can be uploaded at the time given by the Chair.

6.2 Booking conference items

Booking conference items is an optional functionality that is only available if the Chair has enabled it for the current conference.

Delegates can register for the conference and book additional items during registration or under the My profile tab. The My profile tab also lists the current order status.