With the glossary below you receive an overview of the terms and definitions that can be found in ConfTool and ConfTool Pro respectively. The explanations occur with the focus on academic conferences.

Please note that organizers can also adjust their ConfTool installation to their specific terminology in the system settings.

If you are unable to locate the term or definition that you are looking for, please send us an e-mail. We shall then make every attempt to broaden our glossary.

Abstract: An abstract can either be a short independent contribution for a conference or the summary of a full paper. A summary of reduced length of a contribution.

Acceptance Status: will be confirmed after the review-process and will indicate whether a contribution will be accepted and released, and in which format (i.e. full paper or poster).

Account: See User account.

Acquirer (Acquiring Bank, Credit Card Merchant): An institute that carries out the settlement of payment per credit card. This can, for example, be a bank or a company specializing in credit card invoices. With invoices, fees are incurred which are subject to transactions.

Active denotes when a particular phase is “live” in the ConfTool system. If a phase is not active (deactivated), the functions that rely on that phase cannot be performed. Whether or not a phase is activated depends on the settings, for example in phases and deadlines.

Administration of contributions: The submission- and review process of academic meetings typically follows a number of steps/phases:  1. Submission of a contribution , 2. Assignment of the contribution to a reviewer, 3. Review phase, 4. Decision on acceptance or rejection of the contribution on the basis of the review, 4. Submission of the final version, 5. Program planning . 

Assignment : The process by which contributions are matched and “assigned” to the (most) appropriate reviewers. The allocation with ConfTool can be done automatically or manually. Bids and corresponding topic areas are taken into consideration.

Author (Submitting Author): Someone who submits a contribution for a conference to ConfTool. The submitting author is the contact person for the conference organizers, he can make changes to the contribution up until the deadline, and he will be informed of the result of the assessment process. See also Co-Author and Presenter.

Author / Co-Author: Someone who submits a contribution toConfTool. The Author is the submitting person, Co-Authors can be identified by matching e-mail addresses.

Backend (Back Office): indicates the part of the functions of ConfTool that are not accessible to “normal” users, but rather require administrative user-rights. For example, the administrator has access to the Backend and carries out the administrative tasks and the configuration of the system.

Best-Paper-Award: Option for the valuation of a submission through one or more reviewers, with which a submission will be recommended as „best paper“ of a conference.

Bidding (Phase): In ConfTool Pro reviewers can participate in a bidding process. Here they may select the contributions they would like or would not like to review (based on their personal area of expertise). The chairs will try to consider these "biddings" during the assignment of submissions to reviewers. Furthermore, reviewers can indicate potential conflicts of interests. 

Bidding for reviews: Reviewers have the possibility to bid for submissions that they would like to review because, for example, the submission concerns their area of expertise (see Bidding Phase).

Bulk Mails (Group e-mails): A (personalized) e-mail, which is sent from the ConfTool-System to a specific user group. They will be sent through the appropriate program point in the system. Group e-mails will not be sent automatically.

Co-Author: Co-Authors are further authors of a contribution who have not themselves submitted the work. They can also be informed of the result of the review process via e-mail. The allocation to their user-account (where available) is possible via their e-mail address; therefore, submitting authors should put in the e-mail addresses of all co-authors in the ConfTool-system.

Community-System: ConfTool Pro offers an online-list of all participants, in which you can access the profiles of other participants.

Confirmation for Participation: is automatically generated when someone has registered for a conference and contains, amongst others, participant-specific data.

Conflict of Interest (CoI): If a reviewer was involved in the research of a conference submission or knows the authors very well, his objectivity is usually limited. In this case he should state a conflict of interest and not review the according submission.

Conference Administrator: Someone who can manage every aspect of of ConfTool, including ConfTool Settings, User and Participant Management, Manage Submissions, and Reviews, Conference Program Scheduling, Bulk Emails, and Data Import and Export. The administrator is usually also one of the Conference Organizers.

Chair: A person in charge for the submission and review process of a conference. Usually he acquires several reviewers who read and evaluate the submissions. Based on the reviews the chair(s) decide about acceptance and rejections of the submissions.

Conference Assistant (Assist): An administrative user with access to all users, participants and all payment details. Conference Assistants do not have access to the submissions or reviews. They also cannot access the settings of ConfTool.

Conference Chair (ConfChair): An administrative user with access to all users, all submissions and all reviews. Conference Chairs do not have access to financial details of the participant registration module and cannot access the main settings.

Conference Organizer: Someone whom participants contact for more information about a conference. The Conference Organizer and his e-mail contact details are identified in the “Main Setup” page, which is available from the “Settings” page.

Conference Proceedings: In conference proceedings, the accepted submissions are announced.

Conference Program: Compiled from the accepted submissions. From this, an overview and detailed agenda are automatically generated in the ConfTool-System. These can serve as the basis for the program booklet, the conference-website or a program-CD.

Conference Sessions: Conferences are frequently divided into thematic proceedings, in which multiple presentations of a single subject take place. In the ConfTool-System, sessions serve the structuring of the conference program.

Conference Track:  A specific field of study for a conference.  Examples of Conference Tracks for a Scientific Conference may include “Biology: Revolutionary Evolution”, “Physiology of Bipedal Mammals” and “Developing Applications of Research Technology.”  Administrative users may create Conference Tracks that are specific to their conference.  Conference contributors can view and select the Conference Tracks for a conference.

Conference Topic: A specific area of expertise or study within a conference.   Reviewers are associated with conference topics based on reviewers’ fields of study. Reviewers will only receive submissions that are most relevant to them. 

Configuration (Setup): The system can be configured for all specific interests of an event. This includes surface, functions, user-rights, allocation of topics etc.

Contribution: See submission

Deadline: A deadline defines the end of a phase. Once a deadline has been reached, the according function of the system (for example, the possibility to submit proposals) will be automatically deactivated.

E-Commerce-Gateway: A service that allows direct billing via credit card and other payment methods. For the billing of credit cards, a contract with an acquiring bank is also required, which is usually also the provider of such a service. For the use of E-Commerce-Gateways, setting up-, monthly- and/or transaction-fees are incurred. For ConfTool Pro there are connections to different E-Commerce-Gateways, for example, PayFlow Link, Saferpay, Skrill (Moneybookers) and PayPal.

Event-Layout: The surface of ConfTool can be adjusted to the layout of the events-website (Logos, Colors, Terminology etc.).

Experts: see Reviewers

Export function (Data Export): With the export function data can be exported from the ConfTool-database and can be further processed in Office-applications. Formats: XML, Excel, CSV.

File Type: A specific file format for which submissions will be accepted in ConfTool. For example, users may submit MS Word files (with a .doc or .docx extension), Acrobat Portable Document files (with a .pdf extension), or Images (with a .gif or .jpg extension). The default file types are defined in the Main Setup page, which may be accessed from the Settings page. In the Pro version arbitrary file types can be defined for each upload category.

Filter function: All system lists can be filtered through varying criteria, i.e. search words or features, such as type of submission or acceptance status.

Final Version, Camera-Ready Copy: The final version of a submission with, where applicable, a statement of the lecturing author.

Front Desk / Registration / Student Volunteer (SV): Someone who performs conference registration tasks but has no access to the submitted contributions and only limited access to financial/payment details.

Full Paper: Full/detailed form of a submission; a short version or summary of a contribution is often termed as an abstract.

HTML-Format: Formatting language to create web-sites.

Identity data: Personal data which is provided through a participant application to an event, i.e. name, address (also see Profile). The data will be used, amongst others, for the name badge, participant list and the community system.

Import function (also: Data-Import): Person details may be imported to the database of the ConfTool-System. For example, reviewers and program committee members can be transferred into the system from an Excel list.

Localization: Adjustment of a system to the requirements of a language. It includes the translation of the system and the format for numbers, currencies, and date specifications, as well as the format of address specifications.

Log-in (User registration): Registration by means of a password to a session, to give in or change personal data, contributions and/or reviews.

Log-out: Finishing a session with ConfTool to prevent unauthorized access to your personal data.

Meta-Reviewer (Expert-Reviewer): A reviewer who has access to the reviews of his co-reviewers. The Meta-Reviewer can also see be enabled to see who submitted the other reviews to intervene in the review process.

Online-Editor (WYSIWYG-Editor): Simple text-processing program, though in web-browser. Formatting such as bold, cursive etc are possible. It can be applied for the submission of abstracts. For the saving of data, the HTML-format is used.

Online-Forum: Discussion platform for the program committee, in which contentious submissions can be discussed online after the review process; it therefore serves as a decision tool for the Chairs.

Overview lists: All data in the system such as users, contributions and participants can be accessed in the form of an overview list. Here you can navigate, filter and search the data.

Panel (Podium discussion): Form of event for conference sessions. On a panel, experts discuss a topic (mostly with varying views). The audience can ask questions.

Participant: Someone who has has registered for conference participation. To apply to participate at an event, registration in the system with the entry of personal data, payment details etc. is required.

Participant Registration: see Registration

Participant Statistics: Overview of participant groups, the booked options and amounts.

Participant Status: is indicated at the registration of an event. Examples are: Normal, Member (with a box for the membership number), Student, Guest/Accompaniment. The costs for attendance and the possible options at registration frequently depend upon the participant status.

Payment: Incoming payment of a participant. Payments will, in part, be automatically observed (per PayPal or credit card with an E-Commerce-Gateway), or manually (for cheques and bank transfer). Payments must be controlled in each case because many methods of payment can be cancelled for differing reasons. For instance payments per credit can be cancelled up to 60 days after payment if the client objects to a payment.

Payment confirmation: received automatically by the participant per e-mail, when the payment is saved in the ConfTool-System.

Payment methods: Participants can choose the method of payment; for example, credit card, online banking, or PayPal.

Phases: The preparation of a conference can be divided into multiple phases. Below is a short account of the possible conference preparation schedule. You can find a full overview on the Conference Planning Phases page:

1. Submission of contributions,
2. Bidding of potential reviewer for the contribution,
3. Allocation of contribution to the reviewer,
4. Review of the contribution by reviewer,
5. Discussion about acceptance and rejection by the program-committee,
6. PC-Meeting with decision on status,
7. Announcement of results,
8. Submission of final version and
9. Registration to participate.

Poster: Form of a submission; usually encompasses an abstract of one or two pages.

Presenter: Person that presents a contribution to the conference. Although not compulsory, often the submitting author of a contribution is also the presenter.

Profile: Personal data of a user of ConfTool, which is entered on registration. Furthermore, photos can be provided, for example, for the community-system.

Program Committee (PC, Steering Committee, Conveners): Executive board of the event; responsible for the course of the conference, the program. The PC is usually made up of the chairs and the reviewers of a conference. In the PC-Meeting they decide on the acceptance and rejection of submissions. Some conferences also have further reviewers who are not members of the program committee.

Quick Links: „Short cuts“ in the ConfTool-System, in order to be able to access the most important functions quickly.

Registration (Phase):  The phase of a conference in which users can create accounts (i.e. Registration of New ConfTool Users) and register for conference activities (i.e. Registration for Conference Participation). At registration, the user fills out their personal data and their preferred options for booking and payment. Once successfully registered, the participant automatically receives a confirmation and can print out their bill.

Review : A reviewer’s evaluation of a submission with a recommendation to the program committee (PC) as to whether or not the submission should be accepted for the event. Usually, a least two experts review a submission. On the basis of the results the acceptance of the review will be decided by the Chair (acceptance status).

Reviewing: Users registered as reviewers in ConfTool view and download the allocated submissions, and submit their evaluation.

Reviewing (Phase):  The conference phase in which Conference Committee review and rate conference submissions.

Reviewer / Expert: Someone who can view and evaluate submissions to a conference that have been assigned by a Chair. Reviewers can „bid“ for certain submissions, which means they can apply for those reviews. In the system, the role of the reviewer will be given by the administrator.

Rights: Defines the actions you can perform

Search function: One can filter what is entered and search for terms and definitions in all overview lists.

Server Time: The system clock of the server on which ConfTool is hosted. In the Pro version a different time zone can be set for any conference event and the according deadlines will apply. The server clock may be adjusted on the "Main Setup" page, which may be accessed from the "Settings" page.

Session: see Conference Sessions.

Session Overview: An abstract or short description for a conference session.

Short Paper/Abstract: short form of a contribution or a summary as the case may be.

SSL-Certificate (HTTPS-transfer): With the help of a SSL-certificate, the safe transfer of data between a Web browser (i.e. Firefox) and a Website is provided, so that the transferred data cannot be intercepted or manipulated by third parties. Usually, certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities who guarantee the identity of the server provider.

Student Volunteer (SV): Persons (usually students) who carry out helping tasks for the conference-organization and –running for a certain amount of time. For their services, volunteer helpers can take part at the conference free of charge.

Sub-Conference / Conference Track (also Network, Stream): Some conferences have sub-events with a separate review process and special Chairs. , the Track-Chair-Module is needed.

Submission/Contribution/Proposal: A contribution that an author submits for review to a conference in the ConfTool-system. This can, for example, be a full paper, an abstract, or a poster.

Submission Phase:  The conference phase in which users can submit and upload contributions to be considered for the conference program.

Submissions, maximum number: Reviewers can state a maximum number of submissions that they would like to review.

Submissions list: Chairs of a conference have access to all submitted contributions of the conference (or accordingly their own Track only). A reviewer can see a list of submissions assigned to him for review.

Topics (Topic Areas): Authors can indicate suitable topic areas when submitting a contribution. Reviewers can choose their academic focal point from the same topic areas. The allocation of submissions to review are made on the basis of thematic overlapping of topic areas.

Track: see Conference-Track

Track-Chair-Module: Additional program-module for ConfTool Pro, that allows to allocate Chairs, Reviewers and Topics to sub-conferences of an event (e.g. tracks, streams or workshops). In doing so, the Chairs get access to the submissions and reviews of their own Tracks only, but not to those of the other Chairs.

Tutorial: Form of event for sessions at a conference. Tutorials often take place in the run-up to the actual conference: Experts speaks on a (current) issue. Tutorials usually last longer than a normal lecture and often cost an additional fee.

Type of Submission: The ConfTool-System allows to administer different types of submitted contributions. These can be, for example, abstracts (short submissions), full papers, posters and workshop contributions.

Unicode: Standardized codification form for characters with which any symbols of known literary languages can be displayed. Develops as standard for the web, e-mails and all other data.

User Account: After registration, every person who registers with the ConfTool-System automatically receives a user account. Here, he can manage his data and submissions and register for conference participation. User accounts are protected by passwords and only persons authorized by the organizer have access to this data.

User-Profile: Personal data of a user including his user status / user role. Every user must create their own profile when issued with a user account.

Web-Form: Form that can be filled-out in Web-browser (i.e. Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer).

Workshops: Form of event for sessions of a conference. Usually led by experts of a specific topic. Participants submit their own contribution. This topic will be worked through together with all participants holding talks and discussing new findings. A workshop usually runs for a half- or full-day.