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 multi-track submission forms, automatic reviewer assignment with conflict detection, per-track sub-committees, and flat published pricing with 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.

Fourwaves accommodates multiple submission formats in one form: build forms with conditional logic to support diverse submission flows using the drag-and-drop editor.

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

Peer review in Fourwaves runs in four steps: the program chair builds a review form with scoring and comment questions, adds reviewers, assigns submissions to reviewers automatically or by hand, then tracks progress and records accept or reject decisions from one dashboard. Single-blind and double-blind settings are switched on in the event settings. Details are on the peer review software page.

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.

Abstract fields in Fourwaves 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.

Fourwaves exports abstracts and their files: 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.

Fourwaves manages abstracts for medical and scientific meetings: universities, research institutes, scientific societies, and medical organizations use Fourwaves to run the call for abstracts and peer review for their meetings. It handles multi-track submissions, single or double-blind review with automatic reviewer assignment and conflict detection, per-track sub-committees, and produces a formatted book of abstracts at the end. It scales from a student symposium to a multi-track society meeting of 2,000+ submissions, on the same review workflow.

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.

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 can help you run the call for abstracts and peer review only. Organizers publish a submission form, assign reviewers, record decisions, notify authors and export the book of abstracts without using other modules like event registration or the event website. The free plan covers 25 submissions per event and paid plans have a flat annual fee. Registration, payments, the program, the mobile app and the event website are on the same event whenever they are needed, this year or at the next edition, with no migration and no second vendor. Oxford Abstracts and EasyChair also handle abstracts alone, but adding registration, payments, a mobile app or an event website means a second tool.

Fourwaves, EasyChair, Ex Ordo and Oxford Abstracts all run abstract submission and peer review for academic conferences; the differences are what happens after acceptance and how you buy. Fourwaves adds registration and payments, an event mobile app, the event website and the program on the same event, publishes flat annual prices, includes a free plan with 25 submissions per event, and keeps past events online indefinitely, so a committee can start with abstracts alone and add the rest at the next edition. Oxford Abstracts offers a paid symposium add-on for collecting symposia with their own sub-abstracts, prices per event, and guarantees event data access for one year (its pricing page, checked September 2026). Ex Ordo prices by quote after sales demos, collects panel and symposium submissions natively since January 2025, and syncs member status from Naylor Novi AMS, an association management system, on request, which suits associations that need that specific integration. EasyChair handles no payments and no event website. Detailed comparisons written by Fourwaves: Fourwaves vs EasyChair, Fourwaves vs Ex Ordo and the best Oxford Abstracts alternative.