Concepts

The term “User” refers to every person that interacts with the system, whether they are conference delegates, authors, or conference site managers.

Users relate with the system by means of “user accounts”. Each user account stores all the information related to that user, and is protected by a username (e-mail address) and a password.

It is also by means of the user account that users upload their works and access important information, like the conference program or reviewers comments to their works.

Users may have different roles in the system, according to the tasks they perform in the conference and hence in the system. Each user may be assigned only one or several roles (e.g. author and attendee, author and co-author, session manager, etc.).

The DIGITALPAPERS includes the following user roles:

Conference Administrator

• users responsible for managing the system itself;
• typically this is also a conference administrator or part of the organizing committee;
• the Conference Administrator role can only be assigned to a user by other Conference Administrators;
• Conference Administrators are responsible for configuring and entering all the background information in the CMS (creating conference topics, defining conference rooms, assigning sessions to rooms, creating conference detailed program, creating and triggering personalized e-mails to different users, etc.); monitoring the progress of conference activities and tasks (i.e. abstract submission, paper review, etc.;)
• Conference Administrators can create new users and assign any roles to existing users;
• Conference Administrators have access to all other functions that can be performed by other users, and to all works submitted to the system by the Authors;
• Conference Administrators can control the functions that other users are able to perform at any given time (e.g. they can enable or disable submission permissions to authors, or grant access to papers by reviewers);

Topic Administrator

• users that are responsible for managing the conference topics created by Conference Administrators;
• this role can be assigned to any user by Conference Administrators;
• Topic Administrators have access to all the documents submitted for the topic they are responsible for;
• they may create sessions inside topics, assign papers to topics, assigning reviewers to topics and propose assignment of papers to reviewers;
• Topic Administrator can monitor the progress of activities and tasks inside their Topic Area (i.e. abstract submission, paper review, etc.);

Session Administrator

• users responsible for conference sessions;
• this role is assigned by the Administrators;
• Session Administrators have access to all the documents assigned to the session they are responsible for;

Reviewer

• users responsible for reviewing documents;
• this role is assigned by the administrators;
• Reviewers are assigned to conference topics by Conference Administrators;
• documents are assigned to Reviewers by Conference Administrators or Topic Administrators (requires Conference Administrator validation);
• to ensure a neutral review process, the system cross-checks Reviewers with paper Authors, to make sure an Author is not assigned to review his own paper; this cross-checking is made using the e-mail addresses of both Reviewers and Authors;

Author

• users who are the primary authors of works submitted to the conference;
• this role is automatically created by the system when a user submits an abstract; it can also be created by an Conference Administrator;
• Authors are responsible for submitting new versions or instances of their works (i.e. full papers, reviewed papers, and so on) when required, according to the diagram presented in another section (please note: co-authors are not able to do this on the system);
• Authors are also the recipients of any messages concerning the handling of their works (e.g. abstract acceptance, review comments) and hence must look for and act upon them (please note: co-authors do not receive these messages);

Co-author

• users who are co-authors of a work submitted by an Author;
• this role is automatically created if an author indicates another user as co-author of the paper; if the new user (i.e. the co-author) does not have an account in the system, it is also automatically created;
• Please note: co-authors are not able to perform most of the actions assigned to authors;

Attendee

• all users that are attending the event;
• this role is automatically assigned to a user who registers the conference registration;
• Attendees may create their own personalized programme by selection sessions to attend;
• this role is usually a cumulative one, as authors and co-authors are usually also attendees;

Registration Administrator

• user responsible for managing payments and conference registrations;
• Registration Administrators are responsible for checking that payments by have been dully received and entering that information on the system; based on that, they may cancel or confirm registrations;

The term “Document” refers to all the works that are submitted by Authors, i.e.:

• Abstracts
• Papers
• Full papers
• Posters

After being submitted as abstracts, documents in the system follow a process comprising several “stages”. In each stage, different users are required to perform a set of functions in the system in order for the papers to advance to the next stage.

Administrators can always move documents between stages.

The document life cycle has the following stages:

• Abstract Submission: System allows authors to submit abstracts enter authors information and choosing the appropriate topics from the available list of topics; While this stage is open, Authors may update, change or remove their abstract information;
• Abstract Assign Reviewers: Conference Administrator or Topic Administrator assigns abstracts to Reviewers;
• Abstract Review: Conference Administrators make available the review form; Reviewers may access and review assigned documents; Reviewers assess documents and write their comments online; Conference Administrators and Topic Administrators decide on rejection or acceptance of abstracts based on Reviewers comments; When decisions for all abstracts are taken, Conference Administrators can finalize the review process and the system sends personalized notifications to Authors, informing of the rejection or acceptance of their abstracts; this notification may include useful instructions on how to submit papers or other items; Documents are moved to the respective stages (“Abstract Rejected” or “Paper Submission”).
• Abstract Waiting Changes: Authors can submit a new abstract corrected along revision comments; the submitted abstract returns to Abstract Review stage.
• Abstract Rejected: The stage that holds the rejected abstracts.
• Paper Submission: System allows Authors to submit papers corresponding to their accepted abstracts; While paper submission is open, Authors can update, change or remove their papers.
• Paper Assign Reviewers: System prevents Authors from submitting new papers or change submitted papers; Conference Administrator or Topic Administrator assign papers to Reviewers; the Reviewers assignments used in Abstracts are automatically used, although they may be changed.
• Paper Review: Conference Administrators create and assign review form; Reviewers may access and review assigned papers; Reviewers assess papers and write their comments online; Conference Administrators and Topic Administrators decide on rejection or acceptance of papers based on Reviewers comments; When decisions for all papers are taken, Conference Administrators can finalize the review process and the system sends personalized notifications to Authors, informing of the rejection or acceptance of their papers; this notification may include useful instructions on how to submit final papers or other items; Documents are moved to the respective stages (“Paper Rejected” or “Final Paper Submission”).
• Paper Waiting Changes: Authors can submit a new paper corrected along revision comments; the submitted paper returns to Paper Review stage.
• Paper Rejected: The stage that holds the rejected papers.
• Final Paper Submission: After paper submission has been closed, it is still possible to reject papers: that’s the case for non paying speakers, final papers with wrong formatting, and so on. The decision on rejecting or accepting final papers is taken by Administrators or Topic Administrators, who can set that decision on the system; Only Final Papers Accepted will appear on the conference schedule built by the system.
• Final Paper Rejected: The stage that holds the rejected final papers.
• Final Paper Accepted: The stage that holds the final papers which can later be used to create the program schedule or paper publications such as the abstracts book. In this stage, authors may submit the presentation that will be presented in the event day.

The document workflow is configurable by administrators in one of the two life-cycles available. One, for more simple events, with  abstract and final paper document types. For more complex events, administrators may select the three document types life-cycle and so the system will handle abstracts, papers and final papers. For further information please view the document life-cycles diagrams in the “Downloads” section.