Can I merge the details of two distinct user accounts into one?

Checking our database we have come across a number of double-entries / duplicated user accounts.
It seems that users have registered twice choosing different roles.

In a particular case, a single user has registered for the conference using two user accounts.
She is now listed as both an author in one profile and as a participant in a separate profile.
In another case, a user has registered as a participant, but has another user account with a reviewer role and several reviews.

Is there a way to merge these two accounts into one?

(A German version of this article is available.)

First check if the double entry is intentional. It is very well possible that a single person has two profiles due to, e.g., working for different organisations. Inform the user that you would like to delete one of the profiles and ask for permission.

There are three options to merge user data from two different accounts:

• You can transfer the registration for participation (including payments) to the other user account.
• You can change the submitting author for the relevant contribution.
• You can transfer all reviews to another user account.

The first of the three options would be to transfer the registration for participation (including payments) to the other user account.

Go to: Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Registrations for Participation

Open the profile of the corresponding participant by clicking on the full name. In the right column “Actions” click “Transfer Reg. to another User” (see Image 1).

In the segment “Select Another User for the Reassignment of a Registration for Participation” you can either choose a user with a name from the dropdown menu “New user for this participant registration” (if available) or enter the corresponding user ID into the field “User ID” (see Image 2).

Click “Preview details of new user” to make the preview appear. Check the details. You can now click on the button “confirm reassignment of registration details” and the user’s profile information will be used to overwrite the details of the participant registration (see Image 3). In that way, the participant registration will be transferred to another user. Please note that the invoice and payment will also be transferred to the "new" user account.

Don’t forget to insert the e-mail of the user that will now be deleted into the merged profile as a secondary e-mail address and check the box "Confirm validity now".

Delete the user account that now has no more role as a participant.
Go to: Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Users
In the column “Action” click “Delete” and confirm. Please note that all submissions from the respective user must have been withdrawn. Furthermore, the user must neither be registered as a reviewer nor a PC member.

A second option to solve the problem is to change the submitting author for the relevant contribution.

Go to: Overview => Submissions & Reviews => List of Submissions

In the column “Title” click on the title of the submission to open the “Contribution Details”. In the column “Actions” click “Change Submitting Author” (see Image 4). In the segment “Assign Contribution to New Author” you can either choose a user with a name from the dropdown menu “New Submitting Author” (if available) or enter the corresponding user ID into the field “User ID” (see Image 5).

Click “Submit and Preview New Author” to make the preview appear. Check the details. You can now “Confirm New Author” and the participants ID will now be the ID used for this submission instead of the ID of the previous author (see Image 6).

Insert the e-mail of the original author into the profile of the new author as a secondary e-mail address and check the box “confirm validity e-mail now”.

Delete the user account that now has lost the role as the original author. Go to:
 
Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Users.

In the column “Action” click “Delete” and confirm. Please note that all submissions from the respective user must have been withdrawn. Furthermore, the user must neither be registered as a reviewer nor a PC member.

The third option would be to transfer all reviews to another user account.

Please go to the list of the "Program Committee and Reviewers":
Overview => Submissions & Reviews => Program Committee and Reviewers
In the list, click on the name of the reviewer / PC member whose reviews you want to transfer to another user (see image 7).

In the user details of this reviewer / PC member, go to the box "Actions" on the right-hand side of the window and click on the option "Transfer All Reviews to Another User Account" (see image 8 ).

Depending on the affiliation of the user, in the section "Select Another User for the Reassignment of all Reviews and all Related Data" you might now be able to choose a new reviewer from a list via the option "New user account".
If this option does not appear, you can use the option "User ID" to type in the user ID to whom the reviews shall be transferred. Click on the button "Preview details of new user" to open a new page on which you can check the transfer (see image 9 ).

On the next page, check the new user for your transfer and confirm your changes by clicking on the button "Confirm Reassignment of Reviews".

Please note that this option will transfer review assignments and reviews including biddings, topic selections and reviewer messages as well as the user status.

Delete the user account that now has lost the role as the original reviewer.
Please go to:
Overview => User and Participant Management => List of All Users.
In the column “Action” click “Delete” and confirm. Please note that all submissions from the respective user must have been withdrawn. Furthermore, the user must neither be registered as a reviewer nor a PC member nor a participant.