Conference management system

A conference management system is web-based software that supports the organization of scientific conferences. It helps the program chair, 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