Abstract management software that eliminates chaos

Abstract management software is an online platform that collects, reviews, and publishes the abstracts submitted to an academic or scientific conference. It replaces spreadsheets and shared inboxes with one abstract management system that handles the call for papers, custom submission forms, single or double-blind peer review, acceptance decisions, the conference program, and an automatically generated book of abstracts. Fourwaves is abstract management software built for research events, with a free tier, flat pricing, and no per-registrant fee.

Authors open your event’s submission form, fill in the fields you configured (title, abstract, authors, topic, presentation type), upload any required files such as Word or PDF documents, and submit before the deadline.

They can log back in to track their status, see reviewer comments, and revise their submission across review rounds if you allow it. No back-and-forth emails required.

Highly flexible! Our form builder offers maximum freedom. Add any field, including short text, long text, multiple choice (dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.).

Collect submission titles, authors, abstracts, poster files, PowerPoint files, videos, images, and more with specific fields.

Use conditional logic to display fields based on submission types.

You can even edit your form after you’ve started collecting submissions.

Absolutely. Build forms with conditional logic to support diverse submission flows using our drag-and-drop editor.

You can have, for example, separate deadlines for posters and oral submissions.

Create a custom review form, add reviewers, and pair them with submissions using our assignment engine.

Keep track of assignments and make decisions easily. Learn more on our Peer Review page here.

Yes. Fourwaves runs both single and double-blind peer review. You control exactly which author and submission details reviewers can see, assign reviewers by topic or expertise, score submissions against your own evaluation criteria, and manage author revision rounds, all from one reviewer portal.

Yes. Abstract fields support Greek letters and other special characters, subscript and superscript, and bold, italic, and underline formatting, all of which carry through to the book of abstracts and the online program. For equations, you can upload an image with a caption or attach a Word or LaTeX document to the submission.

Yes, easily export abstracts to Excel or a formatted Word document with your preferred order or grouping, including an author index, for proceedings.

Export all submission files into a single folder, with individual folders for each submission.

Yes. Universities, research institutes, scientific societies, and medical organizations use Fourwaves to run the call for abstracts and peer review for their meetings. It scales from a small student symposium to a large multi-track medical or scientific conference, and produces a formatted book of abstracts at the end. There is a free tier to start.

Fourwaves has a public API that lets you pull data from all your events: your form fields and their registration and submission data, plus your full program. The documentation is at api.fourwaves.com/documentation, and we add new endpoints over time. If you need something specific, our team can often build it for you.

Yes. Fourwaves follows strict data protection standards and complies with GDPR, FERPA-aligned practices, and major North American privacy laws. Payment data is processed through PCI-certified providers like Stripe.

Abstract management software ranges from free to several thousand dollars per event. Academic-focused tools like Fourwaves and Oxford Abstracts publish their plans and include free tiers, EasyChair charges per submission, and enterprise platforms such as Cvent, Ex Ordo, and OpenWater quote pricing based on event size. Watch for per-registrant fees, which can make a seemingly cheap platform expensive once attendance grows.

“Best” varies based on your context. If you only need to collect abstracts, a free form builder (Google Forms or Microsoft Forms) can work.

If you need peer review, reviewer assignments, scoring, and decision workflows, you’ll usually need either a self-hosted solution you maintain yourself or a real conference platform that offers a free tier like Fourwaves.

Free tools often lack role-based permissions, automated reviewer assignment, multi-stage review or exports for proceedings or scheduling. They can be fine for very small calls for abstracts, but most conferences outgrow them due to limited number of submissions once volume and complexity increase.

Fourwaves combines abstract management, peer review, registrations and your event website in one platform. See how it stacks up in our detailed comparisons: Fourwaves vs EasyChair, Fourwaves vs Ex Ordo and the best Oxford Abstracts alternative.