This article will show authors how to submit an abstract/paper for a conference for review. The first step is logging into the Ex Ordo system.
Your Dashboard
Find your Submit card on your dashboard and select Submit Your Abstract to begin the process. If the conference is collecting papers, this button will say Submit Your Paper.
Submission Workflow
You will then be brought into the workflow to submit your material. Along the left-hand side, you will see all the steps in the workflow. This outlines the upcoming steps and their status. Red means incomplete and information missing and green means complete.
Guide for Authors
Here you will see what information the conference organisers have given you in terms of what your submission should include, as well as other details. If you have any confusion about the requirements, you can contact the conference organizers from the dashboard.
Once you have read over the Guide for Authors and think you're ready to start submitting your paper, click on Next: Start Workflow.
If the Tracks feature is enabled on the conference the first step will be to pick the Track you would like to submit to.
Step 1) Format
The next step is the Format step. Here you decide, if successful, what format would you prefer your paper to be presented in. In this example, we have the options of Oral or Poster. Similar to the last step, click on the blank circle beside the format that you'd like. When you're happy with your presentation format, click on Done: Go To The Next Step.
Step 2) Submission Title and Abstract
Here you can type or copy-paste your submission title into the top text box and your abstract into the larger text box on the bottom. You must be under the word limit to be able to progress to the next step. You can also use tools such as bold, italics and underline, among a selection of others. To find out more about the text editor, see here.
The abstract text box shows the word limit beneath, where you can see how many more words you have left before surpassing the limit. Depending on the conference, there may be multiple boxes to enter the material.
Once you're happy with your title and abstract, click on Done: Go To The Next Step.
Step 3) Authors
This is the author page, where you will put in all information about the authors on this submission. Before beginning this step you should have all author's full names (including prefixes such as Mr, Mrs, Dr), emails as well as their Association and Country ready. You should discuss who will be the presenting and corresponding authors.
Depending on the conference settings there could be some additional questions Conference Organisers would like you to answer such as Biography, Phone number, etc.
You may be asked at the top of the page, Is this a student submission? Use the blank circle buttons to select Yes or No. Since you're signed in, the Ex Ordo, will automatically assume that you are uploading your own paper, and you'll see your name and email address appear here.
Once you have filled out your details you can add other authors.
NOTE: Please TYPE IN your author's email address. You might see an error 'User not found' when you are copy-pasting.
If one of your co-authors has already signed up to Ex Ordo, their details will appear once you start typing in their email address, leaving less work for you to do! Just click on the small box that appears below. This will automatically add their details to this paper for you.
3a) What if I'm uploading a submission on behalf of another author?
If you're uploading on somebody else's behalf, then click the I'm not the author of this paper grey text, as can be seen in the screenshot below. You will then be asked to add in the actual author's details. For more detailed instructions on this, you can read this article.
3b) Corresponding and presenting authors
Now that the details of all the authors have been added, you can list the authors as corresponding or presenting authors. You can have more than one presenting author, but only one corresponding author. Simply click the empty box beside each option to decide. You can also add other authors to your submission, not deciding about their status. Re-Order or select Done: Go To The Next Step.
4) Topic Choice
Here, you decide which topic best suits your paper submission from a list of topics.4a) Simple list of topics
Click on the empty box to the left of the topic choice to choose that topic. Sometimes there'll be restrictions on the number of topics you can choose. This will be displayed on the top of the page in grey writing.
4b) Limiting by topic group
In some cases the conference administrator might only allow you to choose from one topic group instead of all topics - this is so they can stream their submissions more effectively. If this is the case, the Topic step in your submission workflow will look a bit different. Hoover over the topic group you would like to pick from and select Choose This Topis Group.
Choose your topic(s)
After selecting your group, you will then see a list of topics from that grouping. Depending on the conference settings, you will be allowed to choose one or multiple topics.
Changing your topic group
If you wish you can always change your topic group and select new topics relevant to your material:
Once you're happy with your submission, click on Done: Save Submission. You will then be brought to your submission overview page. You and your co-authors will also receive an email receipt, 15 minutes after the submission took place.
And Voila! Your paper has been submitted! You will now have a new card on your dashboard for My Submissions.
5) Possible other steps in the Initial Submissions Workflow
Depending on the conference settings there could be some additional steps in the Initial submissions workflow such as Upload your Paper or Additional Information steps or a couple of additional information steps where conference organisers collect more information about your submission.