Submitting an abstract as an upload only

We do not want to use the abstract field to let authors enter their abstracts.
We would rather like the authors to be able to upload their abstract as a PDF file and not use the abstract field at all.
Are there any drawbacks when we let authors upload their submissions only as a file?

There are several facts that you might want to take into consideration before you opt for an upload-only submission.

Pro-Abstract

• Information entered in the abstract field is always visible without any further user action, i.e., users do not need to click on a download link and open the downloaded document.
• The file size for uploads and hence download times for reviewers and participants might be a limiting factor.
  Text entered in the abstract field has a considerably smaller byte size.
• When you use the ConfTool program scheduling, you can embed the information from the abstract field in the sessions. Participants will be able to easily browse the presentations and their content directly in the agenda.
  You can also include download links for each presentation, but the information contained therein will only be available after the download.
• When you use mobile apps such as Conference4Me, the information from the abstract field can also be easily exported and included in the mobile conference agenda
• Download links to the presentations are also provided, but in a mobile environment, downloads might slow down the browsing experience for the user.

Pro-Upload

• The formatting in the abstract field is limited. You can choose between three different formatting options, but special elements such as graphs or images cannot be included. For further information, please check this related entry: Submitting an abstract via the online form only
• Uploads will allow authors to include special formatting and images or charts; this will be especially helpful for conferences in technical fields in which mathematical formulae are important aspects of the submission or in other academic fields in which charts, illustrations and images are needed to support the scientific findings.
• In case the submissions of your conference must adhere to strict formatting instructions or must be based on templates, please use uploads.

All in all, we think that in most cases it is advisable to always work with the abstract field. Use uploads whenever it is necessary receive full papers with graphics, tables etc.
In this case the abstract field should be used for the summaries of the full papers.

If you want to proceed with an upload only set-up, simply disable the abstract field.
Please go to:
Overview => Settings => Manage Submission Types / Conference Tracks => Edit Submission Type / Track
… and set the option "Abstract" to "No".
Scroll down to section "Upload Settings for This Contribution Type / Track" and set the number of files required for each paper submission and enter short instructions in the field(s) "User information for file ..." (see screenshot).