Incubator: Stop reinventing the wheel: R package(s) for conference and abstract management

Abstract

The ability to host an entire conference online went from nice-to-have to absolutely essential for many communities within just a bit more than a year. As a consequence, online conference tools were exposed to a wider audience, faced tougher scrutiny, and hauled in more feedback than ever before. So far no clear front runner among conference tools has emerged from the process. Strikingly, all current conference tools used by the open-source community have major deficiencies such as accessibility issues, are bulky to navigate for admins, and/or come with a hefty price tag. The idea of this incubator is to discuss whether and how processes such as registration, abstract evaluation, or submission can be mapped into an R package and the open-source ecosystem. We aim to challenge established processes and walk through possible process changes, e.g., reviews. We also see such a system as an opportunity towards equitable practices in picking topics, forming committees, choosing reviewers, providing feedback to submitters, and selecting contributions. We intend to work on a solution that is easy to reproduce and facilitates knowledge transfer for annual conferences with changing organizers.