How to create a call for abstracts

• The conference dates and the date decisions must reach authors. Everything else is worked backwards from these two.
• Who sits on the program committee, and how much review time they can give.
• Whether you will run single-blind, double-blind or open review — it changes what you ask authors to leave out.
• Roughly how many presentation slots and poster places the venue allows, so the call does not invite far more work than you can present.

Fill in this timeline from the bottom up. The gaps between rows are yours to set; what matters is that each one is long enough for the people who have to act in it.

1. 1

   Define the scope and the tracks

   Write the scope in two or three sentences, then list the tracks. Tracks become the backbone of review assignment and of the program, so make them distinct enough that an author can choose one without hesitating.

2. 2

   Choose the submission types

   Oral presentation, poster, workshop, case study — offer only the formats you can host. If the committee may move an oral submission to a poster, say so in the call, and ask authors for their presentation preference.

3. 3

   Set the word limit and say how words are counted

   State the limit and what it covers. Say that the title, author list and keywords are not counted, and whether headings such as Background and Methods are expected.

4. 4

   Decide which fields are required

   Title, abstract and the submitting author’s contact details always. Then only what review and the abstract book need: co-authors, affiliations, a track, keywords, a presentation preference. Every extra field is a reason to abandon the form.

5. 5

   Fix the dates in one time zone

   Give the opening and closing dates with a time and a named time zone — “23:59 Lisbon time, 31 January” — so the deadline means the same moment for every author. Decide now whether you will extend, and if you do, announce it once.

6. 6

   Write short author guidelines

   Cover the scope, the format, whether previously presented work is eligible, what to leave out for blind review, whether the presenting author must register, and when decisions will be sent.

7. 7

   Publish the call on the conference website

   Put the guidelines and the form on one page of the conference site, not in a PDF that links elsewhere. Submit a test abstract yourself before announcing it.

8. 8

   Announce it, then watch the count

   Send the call to your mailing lists, societies and past authors. Track submissions by track as they arrive, and send one reminder before the deadline.

The full list of fields, with help text for each, is in the abstract submission form template.

• A deadline without a time zone. Someone, somewhere, will submit at what they believed was 23:59.
• A word limit without a counting rule. Authors who counted the title will be told they are over.
• Tracks that overlap. Reviewers then get work outside their field, and the program groups talks that do not belong together.
• Asking for more than you will use. Every field you add is data you must check and store.
• No instructions for blind review. Double-blind review cannot hide an author who names their own lab in the first sentence.
• Repeated extensions. After the second, authors stop believing the date and wait for the third.

Each step above is a field on the call’s setup screen: tracks, submission types, the word limit (50 to 2,000 words, 300 by default), each optional field set to off, optional or required, opening and closing dates in the event’s time zone, and the guidelines shown above the form. Publishing adds a “Call for abstracts” page to your conference website, and submissions are refused outside the dates you set. See call for abstracts software for the whole module, and the abstract word count checker for the counting rule the form uses.