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Version 6.90 Release
30 October 2018

We are pleased to announce the release of OpenConf version 6.90 with open reviews and new mobile program!

The Program and Proceedings modules now allow the Chair to include review information on their respective detailed submission pages. The Open Review movement is starting to grow and with this new option, OpenConf-powered events and journals are able to provide a leadership role in making their peer review process more transparent. This in addition to the previously existing Custom Forms module feature allowing the selection of review form fields that authors may access.

The mobile program has been redeveloped from scratch to the latest HTML5 standard and should provide better performance across modern browsers. Improvements include more intuitive navigation, readily available session location information, OpenStreetMap option, links to published submission files in the full program, and a new search feature allowing queries across: session titles and chairs, and submission titles, authors, and discussants. Look for additional improvements in the future with this new, more flexible platform.

A few other changes of note:

  • Reviewers and advocates are now notified when an assigned submission is withdrawn
  • Incomplete assignments will be displayed first for committee members
  • The option to limit Chair emails to one per address has been added for when content is known to be the same
  • The Chair may directly edit a committee member.s profile through the List Committee Members feature
  • A new recipient group for contacting all accepted authors has been added when multiple acceptance types are defined

As always, we welcome your feedback. Many of the new features are a result of OpenConf users letting us know what would make their experience better. Send us an email or contact us through our web site.

Version 6.81 Release
28 April 2018

Privacy enhancements, new translation, improved PHP 7 compatibility, and much more in the just released OpenConf 6.81.

With the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect in one month, several new features have been added to assist with compliance. These include an embedded or linked privacy policy, consent checkboxes on forms collecting personal information, additional Chair data deletion capabilities, and a privacy (cookie) banner. As requirements may differ based on how OpenConf is used, it is up to your organization to ensure compliance with any regulations. More information on the new privacy features is available at https://www.openconf.com/documentation/privacy.php.

Among other new features in this release are:

  • Indonesian translation
  • Multi-factor authentication for the Chair account
  • Consolidated view of potential program conflicts
  • Custom string translations
  • Improved PHP, MySQL, and HTML compatibility
  • Log search capability
  • Optional encryption of exported settings file

Note that the deprecated PHP --with-mcrypt requirement has been dropped, and instead --with-openssl is now required. Make sure that your installation meets this requirement prior to making an upgrade. Also, support for the deprecated reCAPTCHA version 1.0 has been dropped.

We hope you benefit from the new features and welcome your suggestions for future improvements.

Version 6.80 Release
31 October 2017 – Halloween!

All treat, no tricks – OpenConf 6.80 has just been released, and it's not spooky at all.

Among the treats are:

  • New Mail module supporting use of your own SMTP server without modifying PHP configuration
  • Committee member accounts import feature
  • Schedule when to open/close features such as submission
  • Author photo inclusion in online program and proceedings through new Photo Link submission form field or MultiFile upload file type
  • New permission options for committee members to see Chair acceptance decision, and reviewer to see advocate contact information
  • Program sessions export for migrating schedule from one year's event to the next

Several other updates have also made their way into this release, and are documented under docs/CHANGES. Upgrade instructions are available in the docs/INSTALL file.

Let us know what you think of OpenConf and how to make it even better by filling out the form at www.OpenConf.com/contact/.

Version 6.71 Release
1 April 2017 – April Fools' Day!

No fooling – OpenConf 6.71 is available for download as of April 1st.

This release mostly addresses bug fixes, although a few enhancements did manage to sneak in. Take a look at the change log for details. Note that PHP 5.4+ is required for this release; however, PHP 5.3.7+ may still work if the Program module is not used.

Thank you to our customers and users for their feedback as it allows us to continuously improve OpenConf. Should you wish to make a suggestion, use the contact link in the footer of our web site.

Version 6.70 Release
22 December 2016

OpenConf 6.70 is available for immediate download. All users are encouraged to upgrade so as to benefit from fixes and new features including:

  • Chair customizable submission summary page template for web program and proceedings
  • Proceedings search with Chair selected fields
  • Options for advocates or reviewers to unassign reviews
  • Option for all authors to receive email notices, not just contact
  • UTF-8 committee usernames
  • Accessibility improvements

A full listing of updates is available in the docs/CHANGES file.

Download now from https://www.OpenConf.com/download/. Paid licensees should first click the Customer Login link on the download page.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing OpenConf and wish you the happiest of holidays!

Version 6.60 Release
26 April 2016

OpenConf 6.60 is now available for download!

This release focused on adding features requested by several clients, including:

  • Toggling conflict matching based on email address
  • Setting Author 1 to always be the contact author
  • Designating whether required author fields applies to all authors, first author, or contact author
  • Specifying that Chair emails should be sent to all submission authors, not just the contact author
  • Choosing fields to include on review form based on submission type
  • Notifying contact author when a file is uploaded

Some of the new features are only available with our Professional Edition. If you are using Community or Plus Edition, you may upgrade your existing installation following the same steps as a regular version upgrade. Simply purchase a Professional License, download the licensed archive, and follow the usual upgrade steps.

For a full list of updates, see the CHANGES file in the docs/ directory of the software download or in the Documentation section of our web site Support page. Several new documentation guides have also been added to the Documentation section since our last release — be sure to check them out.

If you are not yet following @OpenConf on Twitter, you are missing out on usage tips, peer review news, and much more. Follow us and be the first to know when a new release comes out.

Version 6.50 Release
28 December 2015

Just in time for the new year, OpenConf 6.50 is now available for download from the OpenConf.com web site. New and updated features include:

  • Persian translation
  • Publons integration (Pro Edition)
  • Review assignment date tracking
  • Automatic review assignments at submission time (Pro Edition)
  • Separate control of committee assignment access from sign in
  • Increased username length
  • Improved conflict checking to account for overridden assignments

If you are hosting OpenConf on your own server, follow the upgrade instructions in the docs/INSTALL file – also available on our web site under the Support page (see Documentation: Installation). Professional and Plus Edition licensees must first login to their customer account via the download page. OpenConf Hosting Service clients may request an account upgrade from the support team.

Keep up with the latest news and tips about OpenConf, peer-review, events and journals by following @OpenConf on Twitter (www.twitter.com/OpenConf).

Happy New Year!

Version 6.40 Release
3 August 2015

OpenConf 6.40 has just been released, and is available for immediate download on our web site. Professional and Plus Edition licensees should first login to their customer account via the download page. OpenConf Hosting Service clients may request an account upgrade from the support team.

New in this release:

  • Automated email notifications template editor
  • Different number of automated review assignments to reviewers and advocates
  • Advanced configuration setting for limiting file upload size (OC_fileLimit)
  • Enhanced file format verification
  • Completely revamped Chair summary page
  • Required drop-down fields will now display a blank option instead of defaulting to first option
  • Optional cell character limit in Excel exports
  • IEEE Copyright update for eCF2
  • ORCID collection for reviewers in addition to authors
  • Title prefix option for iThenticate plagiarism submissions
  • Program display option to switch between 12- and 24-hour time
  • Calendar (.ics) export for personalized program
  • Storing of personalized program selections
  • Various accessibility enhancements

We have also switched the English country names to be based on the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) standard, already in use for non-English locales. Those who prefer to instead use the ISO country names will find a countries-iso.php file in lib/locale/en/ which may be used to replace the countries.php file in the same directory.

For a complete list of changes, see the CHANGES file in the docs directory of the OpenConf archive, or the Change Log in the Documentation section of our Support page. A big thank you to our clients for suggesting many of the improvements above!

Twitter user? Follow @OpenConf (www.twitter.com/OpenConf) for usage tips, peer-review news, and other posts of interest.

Version 6.30 Release
14 March 2015

In celebration of Pi Day (piday.org), we are releasing OpenConf version 6.30 on March 14, 2015 at 9:26:53 local time (3.141592653).

New features in this release include:

  • Hungarian translation
  • Support for NoCAPTCHA (CAPTCHA module)
  • Abstract book generation (Program module)
  • Program book generation (Program module)
  • Session Chairs and Discussants now able to view assignments and download files (Program module)
  • Additional filtering on Chair pages by submission type and acceptance status
  • Skipping already accepted submissions when making automated assignments
  • Making automated assignments for a single submission type
  • Setting acceptance decision to match advocate recommendation in bulk

Many other improvements have also been made, and these are documented in the CHANGES file, now found in the docs/ directory or in the Support section of our web site via the Change Log link.

Your feedback is important to us, so please take a moment and reply to this message, letting us know how you are using OpenConf and what new features might be useful.

Happy Pi Day!

Version 6.20 Release
7 November 2014

We are pleased to announce the release of version 6.20. New features include:

  • Bulk (ZIP) download of author-uploaded files
  • Export of data in Excel XLSX
  • Email templates editor
  • Program name/email conflict detection in overlapping sessions (Professional Edition)
  • Export of author data in IEEE Prohibited Author List (PAL) online search format (Professional Edition)
  • CKEditor CDN integration; local CKEditor installation is no longer needed

For a full listing of updates, please see the CHANGES file in the distribution or the Support section of the OpenConf web site.

If you already have OpenConf installed, please follow the upgrade instructions in the INSTALL file.

Many of the new features above are as a result of suggestions and funding from OpenConf users. We thank them for their support!

Enjoy!

Version 6.10 Release
16 July 2014

OpenConf version 6.10 has just been made available for download on our web site. This release includes some new features for paid OpenConf licensees and a few general bug fixes.

Among the new features available to the Chair is the ability to:

  • customize the committee profile form in addition to the submission and review forms (Custom Forms module)
  • designate review form fields for display to authors on the Check Status page and in acceptance emails (Custom Forms module)
  • download a ZIP archive of the proceedings HTML files (Proceedings module)

The CHANGES file contains additional details on other updates made.

As always, your feedback is important to us. Send us an email and let us know how OpenConf is working for you and what new features you would like to see.

OpenConf Named IEEE Preferred Partner
13 June 2014

The OpenConf Team is pleased to announce that IEEE, the world's largest professional association for the advancement of technology, has selected OpenConf as a preferred partner of its Peer Review Service Network. IEEE conducts a thorough vetting and only selects partners capable of meeting the current and evolving needs and priorities of technical program chairs throughout the IEEE conference community. OpenConf has already powered hundreds of IEEE events, and the OpenConf Team looks forward to contributing to the success of many more of the 1,400 annual IEEE conferences and meetings worldwide .

Version 6 released - new modules, translation, and edition
5 May 2014

The OpenConf Team is excited to announce the release of version 6. There are several changes included, and if you have an active OpenConf installation, we encourage you to read on.

The major code changes are a switch from the deprecated PHP MySQL library to MySQLi, and an improved security posture for password storage. In support of these, OpenConf now requires the use of PHP 5.3.7 or later with the MySQLi and MCrypt extensions. This does mean that if your OpenConf installation has any customizations that interact with the database, they will need to be updated. Some OpenConf settings have also been deprecated, and although we have maintained backward compatibility for upgrades wherever possible, you may find a setting no longer available. As such, we recommend that if you are already running version 5.30 for an event, to wait until your next event and make a clean install of version 6.

Now that we have the important stuff out of the way, let's talk about what else is new. First, we are introducing new OpenConf Plus and Professional Editions. The Professional Edition adds the following new features: integration with plagiarism services from Docoloc, iThenticate, and CrossCheck; the ability to require payment in order to make a submission; and fully customizable submission and review forms with user-created fields and multi-question review scoring. We realize not everyone will need the full power of the Professional Edition, and so we have released a new, less expensive Plus Edition which includes the popular peer-review related modules. A comparison of the features available in each may be found under the Editions section of our web site. The OpenConf License has also been revised to reflect the editions change.

Other new features include:

  • Customizable submission confirmation page notice.
  • Settings export/import to make it easier for multi-year events.
  • Ability to set starting submission ID.
  • Limiting submission editing to accepted authors only.
  • Chair-downloadable program in HTML and XML (Professional Edition only).
  • Use of different words for "Author" and "Chair" in English through the advanced configuration settings OC_wordForAuthor and OC_wordForChair.

And thanks to yet another volunteer, OpenConf now comes with a Bosnian translation, bringing the total number to 15. If you are interested in translating OpenConf to a new language, please contact us.

OpenConf Hosting Service customers will also see the added benefit of all new event accounts being served through secure (SSL) connections by default.

We hope you enjoy OpenConf 6, and welcome your feedback!

OpenConf reaches 100 countries milestone
3 February 2012

OpenConf reached a new milestone this month having now powered events in 100 countries. Thousands of events have made use of OpenConf for their peer-review and conference management system. Hundreds of journals, books, grants, and competitions have also selected OpenConf for submission and peer-review. Helping OpenConf reach the 100-country milestone was the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) W78 Conference taking place in Lebanon later this year. For a partial list of the events using OpenConf and where they are held at, visit the OpenConf Portfolio at www.OpenConf.com/portfolio/.