User Roles and Statuses in ConfTool
A user may have one or several different roles in ConfTool. Basically, there are two different types of roles.
- Roles that are automatically set because of a user's action.
- Roles that can directly be assigned by authorized users to give other users additional options.
You can find more information on how to assign the different user roles here: Assignment of user roles
Standard User Roles
ConfTool User
Every person registered with the ConfTool system is a ConfTool user. A user account is necessary to access any parts of the system. At time of registration, all users have no particular status, i.e., they are neither Participant, nor Author, nor Reviewer.
Author
All users who submit a contribution in ConfTool get the status Author. Authors can access their contributions, revise them until the deadline, and after the review phase, they have also access to the results of the reviews. Lastly, they are able to submit the final version (camera-ready copy), if a contribution was accepted.
Co-author [ConfTool Pro]
If an author of a submission lists the e-mail address of her or his co-authors and these are already registered ConfTool users, the corresponding users automatically get the status Co-author in ConfTool Pro. This makes it easier to find out in which cases reviewers might have conflicts of interest. Co-authors may also access the submissions in which they are listed as such and will get copies of e-mails sent to the authors of contributions, for example those about the notification of acceptance.
Please note that not each co-author automatically holds a user account in ConfTool Pro, but there is a function to generate user accounts from the data of Authors / Co-authors.
Sub-author [ConfTool Pro]
ConfTool Pro offers a special submission form for symposia proposals. Such proposals consist of a main abstract and several sub-papers with separate groups of authors.
These authors of symposium sub-papers, submitted as part of a symposium (a series of authored papers on a preset theme), are called Sub-authors in ConfTool Pro.
The corresponding user status is assigned to all users whose e-mail addresses match those that a submitting author of a symposium proposal enters for the authors of symposium sub-papers.
Sub-authors have the same access rights as co-authors.
Discussant [ConfTool Pro]
The role of a discussant is to stimulate a lively discussion in conference sessions for the presentations that they have been assigned to.
ConfTool Pro allows admins or chairs to assign one Discussant to each presentation separately (this feature has to be enabled in the settings).
Users who were assigned to accepted submissions as Discussant get the corresponding user status.
Discussants can access the presentations they were assigned to via their account.
Presenter [ConfTool Pro]
The submitting author (but not the co-authors) of an accepted contribution is listed as presenter in ConfTool Pro. However, if a co-author of the submission has been determined explicitly as presenter and also holds a user account, this user will also be marked as presenter. This allows you to check which presenters are already registered for conference participation.
Moderator [ConfTool Pro]
When you use the scheduling module for the "conference agenda", admin users and conference chairs, as well as track chairs with the corresponding user rights, can assign users to conference sessions as Moderator, Chairs or Discussants of a session. These users get the status “Moderator”.
Moderators (also called Session Chairs or Session Discussants) have access to all information of their sessions and the presentations in the conference agenda, including downloads and contact details of the Presenters, if enabled.
Participant
All users who register for conference participation in ConfTool get the status Participant. They can for instance access their invoice and payment status.
Approved to submit [ConfTool Pro]
This role allows users to enter a submission also before or after the official deadline. The role Approved to submit is assigned individually by administrative users (the role has to be enabled first).
Approved to participate [ConfTool Pro]
This role allows users to register for participation also before or after the official deadline. Please note that this role will not work if the corresponding phase is completely deactivated. To be able to assign this special user role, activate the option "Show user statuses 'Approved to submit' and 'Approved to participate'".
Registration fees waived [ConfTool Pro]
Users with this status can register for participation without having to pay any participation fees. The role Registration fees waived can be used for invited persons, e. g. keynote speakers (the role has to be enabled first).
Reviewer [ConfTool Pro]
Reviewers can access, download and review contributions that were assigned to them and enter their review results in an online form.
Reviewers also have access to the "bidding for papers" function, with which they can indicate which contributions they would like or not like to review. They can also state personal conflicts of interest to prevent submissions of affiliated authors being assigned to them.
Member of the Program Committee (PC Member)
Program Committee Members also enter reviews and bid for papers like reviewers.
Furthermore, they have (in contrast to Reviewers) access to the discussion forum of ConfTool Pro. Here, they get an overview of all contributions with the review results. When they access the reviews of other reviewers (in the forum or when they additionally have Meta-Reviewer user rights), they can see also the see internal review details including remarks from authors to the program committee, best paper recommendations or familiarity of the reviewers with the topics in order to discuss online and to vote for or against acceptance. Papers with personal conflict of interest are not shown to them.
Meta Reviewer [ConfTool Pro]
Meta Reviewers (and Senior Reviewers) are selected experts who have access to all other reviews – including the identity of the Reviewers, if enabled - of those submissions they were assigned to.
Usually, their role is to summarize the reviews of the other Reviewers and to supervise the review process of these contributions. They can remind the other Reviewers of their duties, e.g. if their review is late or too superficial.
Therefore, Meta Reviewers have access to all other reviews of the submissions assigned to them. In addition to that, names and e-mails of other reviewers may be displayed in order to give Meta Reviewers the opportunity to contact these reviewers.
You have to enable Meta Reviews in the “Main Setting for Paper Reviewing” to use this option in ConfTool Pro.
Users with Administrative Rights
Conference Administrator (Admin)
All users with the status Conference Administrator (Admin) have full access to all parts of ConfTool.
They can log in as any other user. This is sometimes useful to assist other users and to test the settings of your ConfTool installation. Moreover, Admins can create new user accounts with administrative rights.
Conference Assistant (Assist) [ConfTool Pro]
Conference Assistants (Assist) play an important role for the participant registration and the processing of payments.
They have access to all users, can create new users (e. g. reviewers), and register users for conference participation. Furthermore, they can access the registration and billing data of all participants and enter the payments that were received.
The Assistants can also send bulk e-mails and export user and participant data, e. g. to create name badges or the list of participants.
Assistants have no access to submissions and reviews.
Chair of the Program Committee (Chair) [ConfTool Pro]
The Chair has access to all submissions (including author names), all reviewers and all review results (including reviewer names). She or he can also manually assign contributions to the reviewers and decide which papers are accepted and which are not.
Additional options of Chairs may be configured in the user settings.
Please note that the "Track Chair" is a variant of the Chair, but has only access to the submissions, reviews and reviewers of his track / submission type [only available when the track-chair-module is installed].
Conference Chair (ConfChair) [ConfTool Pro]
Conference Chairs (ConfChair) have the same options as the Chairs of the Program Committee, but they can also access user and participant management. They can create new users, send bulk e-mails and export data related to the submission process.
However, Conference Chairs have no access to payment details or the settings.
Editor [ConfTool Pro]
Editors can access all submissions and check them for instance for formatting and spelling errors to approve the content, to finalize submissions for publishing. Editors can update the contents and the uploads of all submissions. They also have read access to all reviews and author details. The role Editor has to be enabled in the backend first.
Front Desk / Registration / Student Volunteer (FrontDesk)
Front Desk users have access to all users and participants stored in ConfTool. This status is often used for people who work at the registration desk only (e. g. student volunteers).
They have access to the list of all users and also all participants including their invoices. They have (per default) no access to payment details, which is restricted to assistants and administrators.
They can note the arrival of participants in ConfTool and record if the latter want to appear on the official list of participants and if they signed the participation confirmation form (useful if they haven't paid yet).
