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Why You Need Abstract Management Software

Trevor Strome

Abstract Management Overview

The abstract management process can be a complex and labor-intensive one. Whether you’re an educational institution, professional association, or conference planning organization looking to coordinate potential presentations; a publication overseeing manuscript and article submissions; or a non-profit or government agency reviewing grant proposals, you’re going to spend a significant amount of time, effort, and money on collection, review, and other activities related to abstract management.

But, abstract management is not an exact science. In fact, it’s a manual and multi-faceted discipline that’s prone to errors, inconsistencies, and in worst case scenarios, bias. In order to ensure success, you must entice knowledgeable and well-respected professionals to submit proposals, then select the abstract submissions that will be the most informative, interesting, and relevant to your target audience members. And, you must accomplish all this in a way that is efficient and economical, without distracting from your other important tasks and projects.

However, identifying and attracting the right speakers or authors, and encouraging them to offer high-quality abstracts can pose a tremendous challenge. Additionally, the peer-review process can be a huge burden on your administrative team, as it is often repetitive, time-consuming, and “paper-heavy” in nature. Countless submitted proposals must be sifted through, read, discussed, and evaluated in order to find the ones that will offer the most value.

Without the right processes and supporting technologies in place, your abstract management activities are likely to be plagued by mistakes and delays. This can make it extremely difficult to efficiently and cost-effectively gather and select the best submissions, and ensure that they adhere to the highest professional, research, or academic standards.

On the other hand, companies that rely on abstract management software have found a robust and innovative way to overcome these challenges. With powerful, comprehensive toolkits that are designed to streamline, accelerate, and enhance everything from abstract creation, editing, and submission, through peer review, acceptance, status tracking and publishing, abstract management software solutions help organizations to eliminate the cumbersome manual activities that can hinder success.

By automating all key tasks and activities involved in the entire process from start to finish, abstract management software provides a rapid, simple, and productive way for you to:

• Invite and collect potential abstracts from renowned professionals
• Determine which ones are the most relevant
• Accept those that best fit the overall theme of the conference, publication, research journal, etc.
• Compile, format, and publish them

All those involved in abstract management benefit greatly when a full-featured technology solution is utilized. For example, submitters can leverage a user-friendly Web interface through which they can quickly and easily author, enter, view, and edit their abstracts, then track the status of acceptance or rejection. Reviewers can carefully read and score submissions, as many times as needed. And, administrators can streamline the entire peer review process, improving the way they handle submissions, assign and oversee reviewers, accept or deny submissions, and generate related documentation.

Other benefits that can be achieved through the implementation and use of an abstract management software package include the ability for you to:

• Increase the number and quality of valid proposals by providing submitters with an intuitive environment for creating and sending their abstracts
• Boost satisfaction by providing your target audience with the kind of content that will offer the most value and impact
• Optimize the productivity of your administrative staff by automating and accelerating the manual processes required for review and acceptance
• Improve your image, reputation, and credibility, and heighten the perception of value of your conference, publication, research document, etc.
• Reduce your overhead costs through a dramatic increase in efficiency

Additionally, abstract management software can help promote fairness and consistency in your abstract review and consideration procedures. So, all the submissions you receive will be evaluated based on truly objective criteria.

The case for abstract management software is clear. Without it, organizations will struggle to differentiate themselves by gathering and producing the most compelling content possible.

To learn more about abstract management software, and the value it can provide to your organization, visit our Web site at www.vsreview.com.