Evaluating the Review Results and Setting the Acceptance Status of Submissions

After the review process, the acceptance status of all submissions has to be decided by the chairs and the program committee (PC) of the conference. As this decision is (often) based on the results of the reviewing process, this can be done on this page (short: "Review Results"):
Overview => Submissions & Reviews => Results of the Reviewing Procedure & Decision About Acceptance

This page shows a list of all submissions. Please use the filter options to refine the list. Click on the titles in the list header to change the order of the table.

Image: Results of the Reviewing Procedure - Click on image to enlarge

The columns show the following data:

  • Points are the average of scores received by the different reviewers. The color indicates the score; it ranges from green (positive result) over yellow to red (negative result).
  • Reviews shows the number of reviews received vs. the total number of reviewers assigned. For example: 3 / 4 stands for "3 reviews received" of "4 reviewers assigned".
  • Span is the range between the lowest and the highest score given by the reviewers. If the span is high, the submission might have to be re-discussed by the reviewers or the program committee. You may use the "PC online forum" of ConfTool Pro for this task. Please use the "Special Filter" from the additional filter options to limit the display of submissions with a high span.
  • Contribution Title shows title and type/track of the submission. Click on a title to view details of a contribution and reviews received.
  • Authors lists all authors and the submitting author of the contribution. The names of presenting authors are underlined.
  • Acceptance Status shows the final decision of acceptance. It is “On Hold” first. The status "On Hold" will not be shown to the authors, nor the review results as long as this status is selected. Furthermore, authors can only upload a final version if a submission has been marked as accepted.
    Please select the status from the select box when a decision about a submission has been taken. The status and the review results will not be shown to the authors before the corresponding "phase" is enabled in "phases and deadlines".
     Please note that no automatic mail is sent to authors when you change the status, but please use the bulk mail functions of ConfTool to inform authors and co-authors about the results when you are ready. This allows you to change the status of a submission without sending any confusing e-mails to authors.
    In ConfTool Pro you can edit and create new acceptance status in the back office, change the message of acceptance shown to the authors and set many more parameters.
  • Session / Forum (ConfTool Pro) displays the results of the discussion of the PC online forum with the average vote and the number of comments made by the PC members. You can read the comments if you click on the "messages" link.
    After a contribution was accepted, you can select in which conference session a contribution will be presented. Use the scheduling module to define sessions, times and rooms and refine your conference program, e.g. to specifiy the order of presentations within a session.

With some contributions you may find a Star (and other icons - hover over them for an explanation in a tooltip) in the Points column: These stars stand for the number of reviewers recommending the submissions for the "Best Paper Award".