Everything about how people submit, how reviewers judge, and how the committee decides is set once, before the call opens. This is the longest configuration screen in Rostrum, and it repays care.
The whole chain runs seven stages. Each is a chapter here; this diagram is the map.
The submission window
One opening date and one closing date, both in venue time. Outside the window nobody can submit; drafts can still be worked on but not sent.
A grace period in minutes can be allowed after the close, which absorbs the usual flood of last-minute submissions without you having to sit and move the deadline by hand.
Who may submit
This is the single most consequential setting on the page, and it defaults to the safer of the two.
Only people you have invited by email can submit. Anyone else who reaches the form is turned away. Use this for closed calls, society-member-only calls, and any call where you want to know in advance who is in the pool.
Anyone who can sign in may submit. Use this for genuinely public calls. You still control the window, the limits and the tracks.
A new call is invite only until you say otherwise. If you publicise a call and have not switched it to Open — or not sent invitations — submitters will be refused. It is the most common configuration mistake on this screen.
What a submission consists of
You define the shape of an abstract yourself:
- Sections — one or more named text blocks, each with an optional word limit. A simple call has one section called Abstract with a 300-word limit. A structured clinical call might have Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion, each limited separately.
- Presentation types — whether submitters may ask for an oral slot, a poster, or express no preference.
- Tracks — which of the event's tracks a submitter may file under. Tracks drive reviewer expertise, scoring comparability and capacity targets, so define them before the call opens.
- Submission limit — how many abstracts one person may submit.
- A submitter questionnaire — optional extra questions asked at submission time (funding, ethics approval, presenting-author status). Answers are visible to staff only, never to reviewers.
Whether submitters may edit after sending
Off by default. When it is on, a submitted abstract stays editable until the window closes — convenient, but see the warning under review assignment in Chapter 09: the first reviewer assignment locks an abstract regardless of this setting.
Review settings
- Blind review — hides author names, affiliations and the submitter's identity from reviewers. Disclosures are hidden too. It holds in the reviewer's email as well as on screen.
- Reviewers per submission — one to five. Used as the target when auto-assigning.
- Scoring questionnaire — the form reviewers fill in. You can set one for the whole event, and override it per track. Build it from scratch, or start from one of your organization's saved templates — see Chapter 16.
- Assign reviewers automatically on submit — off by default. When on, each incoming abstract is immediately distributed to the least-loaded qualified reviewers.
Scores are only meaningful within a track when tracks use different scoring forms. The selection board therefore always groups and ranks by track, and never presents one combined league table. If you want a single ranking across the whole call, use one questionnaire for every track.
Capacity targets
Per track, you can record how many oral slots and poster slots you expect to fill. These are shown against your running acceptance count on the selection board as guidance. They are advisory — Rostrum will not stop you exceeding them.
Supporting files
Off by default. Switch it on and submitters can attach figures, tables or supplementary data to an abstract. You set how many files (three by default), how large each may be (10 MB), and which types are accepted — images and PDF by default, with Office documents and MP4 video also available.
One setting here is easy to miss and matters a great deal on a blind call: files under blind review. Files can carry identifying content that the abstract text does not, so you choose whether reviewers see them at all.
Reviewers see files — the default — shows them, and warns submitters in the form to keep names and affiliations out of the files and their filenames. Staff only keeps them from reviewers entirely.
The setting only takes effect while blind review is on, but it is remembered either way. If you turn blind review on later, whatever was last saved here starts applying — so set it deliberately rather than leaving the default in place.
Revision rounds
The committee can send an abstract back once, asking for changes rather than accepting or rejecting it. Two settings govern it: how long submitters get to revise (14 days by default, overridable per batch), and who re-reviews the resubmission — the same reviewers, reset to pending with their earlier answers kept as a starting point, or fresh reviewers you assign by hand.
One round is the maximum. After a revision has been requested, the next decision on that abstract must be final; Rostrum refuses a second request.
Session proposals
Off by default. When on, a chair can propose a whole session rather than a single abstract — a set of linked talks, each with its own title, abstract and speakers. You choose which formats to offer (coordinated papers, roundtable, panel, workshop), how many talks a session must contain (three to four by default), and a word limit per talk abstract (300).
Submitters choose which kind of thing they are submitting at the moment they start, and the choice is fixed from there.
The public submission link
Only relevant on an open call. Generating a public link gives you a shareable web address anyone can use to reach the call without an invitation — see Chapter 07.
Deadline reminders
One switch governs all three of the call's automatic nags: the deadline reminder to invitees and draft-holders, the reminder to reviewers with outstanding scores, and the reminder to accepted submitters who have not yet confirmed. You choose the days-before schedule and the hour of day, in venue time.
Note what is not on that list: there is no automatic reminder for an overdue revision. See Chapter 11.