Guidelines
Please refer to the full list of the Policies and Guidelines, but here are the key points relevant for chairs:
- Chairs must consider all submissions equally that come in before the deadline. Please do not send out acceptances (or rejections) before Sept. 22, 2025, the deadline for Round 3 submissions. Thank you!
After getting three fantastic papers, you might feel like you are all set/done, but please review every paper submitted before the deadline. Some chairs prefer to wait until all submissions have come in before reviewing any.
- All submissions must come through the submissions portal.
If submitting through an online portal would pose an obstacle for anyone, you can submit it on their behalf through the portal – just make sure that you know their answers to the questions
- Chairs may not present a paper at sessions they chair.
Sessions need a chair to keep time and, if applicable, moderate questions and answers.
Reviewing Sessions in X-CD Portal
1. Go to your Login Page for the X_CD portal and follow the directions on that page to login. Once you are logged in, from your profile page, the central column is labeled “Main Page“. Scroll down until you find a red button titled “Reviewer Portal“. Click that button (it should look like the image on the left).
2. On the left is a screenshot of the first screen you will see when you enter the Reviewer Portal. Confirm that you are in ASECS Round 3: Abstracts to Sessions – Abstract review and that under Tracks Assigned your session(s) is/are listed (in the picture below there is one fake example session titled “Testing the testiness of a Test Session”). If you have any issues with your screen not appearing as it should, please contact either Executive Director Benita Blessing (director@asecs.org).
3. If your screen is correctly showing Round 3 and your session(s) under Tracks Assigned, click the button “Start Review“.
4. Once you press “Start Review,” your screen should resemble the one to the left. For the sample test session pictured, there are two (2) test abstracts submitted to our session, so it shows that there are two Reviews to Do. At the bottom of the page, you should see all the abstracts that have been submitted so far to your session listed with their ID numbers. Submitted abstracts have ID numbers starting with 300; in the example to the left, the test abstracts are 302 and 303.
If you are just checking on how many papers have been submitted to your session so far, this step should get you that information. You can leave the review portal without reviewing any submissions. Once you are ready to review abstracts submitted, proceed to steps 5-9 for the completing reviews process.
5. To proceed with reviews, you now need to select an abstract to review. You can either:
Choose an abstract ID number from the drop down menu labeled Select Abstract ID (the little down carrot in the first pink circle below shows where you can click to get the drop down menu) and then press the red Go button (as per the image on the left)
OR
If you scroll to the bottom list of all the submitted abstracts, you can press the red ID number buttons, as shown in the picture in the second pink circle.
Either way you do it, you will advance to the same review screen for an individual submission. You will return to this screen below to go individually to each abstract submitted for review.
6. Now that you have entered an individual abstract to review, your screen should resemble the one pictured to the left, with a column for View Submission (pink arrow) to the left and a column for Submit Review (pink arrow) to the right. These columns scroll independently of each other. Note that the middle pink arrow below points to where you can click to download a PDF of the submission, especially handy if you want to print a hard copy to review offline.
7. Please note: Applicants will not see your recommendation or comments. You are providing this information for the Program Committee only.
Once you have read through the abstract at hand, scroll down to the bottom of the right-hand column and fill out the highlighted sections pictured below. Choosing a Recommendation button is required; you have options of Yes, No or Maybe.
For the Comments section, any response is optional, but could be very helpful for the Program Committee.
After you have filled in the sections to your satisfaction, please press the red button labeled Submit Review (indicated by the pink arrow in the screenshot on the left).
8. You should now see the screen below stating that your review has been updated. Click the red Back button to the left above the green notice about updating to return to the main page.
9. Now that you are back to the main page, you should have one Complete Review and the total of Reviews to Do should have decreased by one. Also note that the listing of all submitted abstracts at the bottom of the page has changed to show that the abstract you just completed is “Assigned” and “Complete” and that you can View Review for that submission. If you don’t see this for the submission you just reviewed, something is in error. If you can’t figure out what the error is, please contact the Executive Director (director@asecs.org).
10. Now you can repeat steps 5-9 for each remaining submitted abstracts.
Once you are done reviewing all the abstracts submitted to your session, you might have some additional decisions to make:
- If you have too many excellent submissions that are on target for your session’s theme, you might like to request a second session.
- You might have had one or more excellent papers that aren’t quite a match for your session and you want to suggest that they should be considered for other sessions (“re-homing”). Use the comments section to inform the Program Committee of these kinds of considerations.
2026 ANNUAL MEETING
QUICK LINKS
List of Sessions 2026 (also available on the Submission Portal)
Submission Portal/Submit an Abstract
Annual Meeting/Submission Rules
2026 Annual Meeting Program (PDF)
Registration Information
Exhibitors and Sponsors
Guidelines and Information
Special Event Programming
Accepting Sessions in X-CD Portal (after Sept. 22, 2025)
Instructions: Ready to accept (or decline) submissions? Please do not inform participants of your decision until after Sept. 22, 2025, so that all abstracts submitted before the deadline may be equally considered.
- Go to your Login Page for the X_CD portal and follow the directions on that page to login.
- Once you are logged in, from your profile page, the central column is labeled “Main Page”. Scroll down until you find a red button titled “Reviewer Portal”. Click this button
- If you’ve already started a review and clicked “save and continue later,” go to the small pencil icon on the top right to edit the review.
- Make (or revise) your selections and score. Then check with the presenters to confirm that they will be presenting in your session (some people might have to choose between two). Feel free to use the language on the right as a model.
- If you would like to request a second session, want to suggest submissions that should be considered for other sessions, or other notes, you can do that in the “Review Notes” section.
- Once everyone has committed to your session, click “save and submit” on the review page and I’ll officially notify everyone of their status – whether it is an acceptance email or a “we couldn’t accommodate you this year” email.
- Questions? Email me. I’m happy to help! (director@asecs.org)
Dear NAME,
I’m pleased to share that I’ve accepted your submission “SUBMISSION NAME” for the session I’m chairing, “MY SESSION”. Please confirm by Oct. 1 that you’ll be taking part in the panel by replying to this email.
Thanks so much,
CHAIR NAME