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SPMS Setup and Key Tasks

Contact: Todd Satogata (Jefferson Lab)

This is a compressed introduction to SPMS setup and key tasks. Longer introductory presentations and resources are linked to in the references at the end of this page that cover the material in much more detail. Complex software like SPMS is best learned by

I will show examples using the IPAC'22 SPMS instance. Useful references aside from this (updated for 2022) TM presentation are:

For large conferences, the SPMS Administrator is usually the Scientific Secretariat. For smaller conferences, the SPMS Administrator may instead be the conference editor or, in rare cases, the Scientific Program Chair or their designee.

SPMS Key Concept: Profile

A Profile is a login to the SPMS representing a single person.

  • Profiles can have multiple affiliations and email addresses.
  • Anything associated with a person in SPMS uses their profile (e.g. authors, session chairs, committee members)
  • Profiles can be explored as Administrator using the Find Profiles top menu item. This can also be used as Administrator to proxy as a user temporarily to e.g. edit their profile.
  • All SPMS profile behavior beyond authorship is configured by the Administrator in
    • Overall Database Administration / Privileges, Roles & Users / Authorize
    • Scientific Program Administration / Classifications / Main Classifications
    • (and on Referee pages for light peer review)
  • Do NOT create test profiles, or support profiles for institutions or collaborations. All profiles are single people.

All profiles are synchronized back to a master instance of SPMS called the Central Repository at CERN. This is unlike Indico, and is indeed a strength of JACoW SPMS; users have consistent profiles (with affiliations, passwords, email addresses etc) among all SPMS instances.

SPMS Key Concept: Classifications

Abstracts (coming next) have Main Classifications and Sub Classifications established by the conference leadership (usually a Scientific Program Committee). At least Main Classifications must be created before abstracts can be submitted.

e.g. the IPAC'22 Classifications/Sub-Classifications are documented on the IPAC'22 website.

These are all setup in the Scientific Program Administration / Classifications area of SPMS.

Reports of abstracts by Classification etc are in General / Reports / Contribution Counts.

SPMS Key Concept: Abstract

An abstract is the abstract for a single scientific work associated with the conference.

  • Each has a unique numeric Contribution ID, a single Presentation Type, a Main Classification, and at least one author
    • Presentation types are user defined (Invited oral, contributed oral, poster, ...)
  • Abstracts are the fundamental building block of the scientific program
  • Note: A single abstract can represent several contributions to the conference
    • e.g. regular poster, student poster, and/or a brief oral presentation
  • Abstract submission is turned on and off by the Administrator on the System Parameters / User page of SPMS.
    • Sub-Classification Required options (yes or no) is also on the System Parameters / User page of SPMS.

The Search link at the top of the SPMS Administrator page is really Search Abstracts.

During conference scientific program organization, abstracts are assembled into the oral, poster, and other parts of the scientific program. Eventually each abstract will be assigned at least one Paper ID or Program Code that is also unique, human-readable/parseable, and used for upload and processing of the materials associated with that contribution to the conference and proceedings.

Most reports (in SPMS menu General/Reports) are database reports about abstracts or associated authors.

Abstracts can be withdrawn by authors or Administrators (via Search) or restored by Administrators (via Scientific Program Administration/Restore Withdrawn Abstract).

SPMS Key Concept: Session

A session is a container that groups together abstracts in the program

  • Sessions have short codes that become part of each abstract's program code
  • Each session is either only Oral or Poster (no mixing)
  • By convention we usually create different sessions for each presentation type
    • e.g. contributed talks vs invited talks
    • This makes clear via program code ID what is contributed vs invited
  • Each session has a date, location, start/stop times, session chair (for talks)
  • Sessions are managed in Scientific Program Administration/Sessions.

Breather

Those four concepts are basically enough to assemble a scientific program:

  • Administrator configures SPMS, enters Main Classifications, and opens abstract submission.
  • Authors create abstracts, and list their coauthors
  • A scientific secretariat/administrator constructs sessions and populates them with contributions (abstracts)
    • This process also organizes the program into groups of oral and poster presentations
    • Sessions can also be associated with roles (e.g. session chairs)

This scientific program has enough information for a program booklet already. But the SPMS Administrator should not have to do everything!

SPMS Key Concepts: Role and Privilege

SPMS has information to manage all aspects of abstracts:

  • upload/download of papers and talks (with file server setup and configuration)
  • editing and processing of submitted materials (by conference editors)
  • reflecting status of processing to abstract (paper or talk) owners

The Administrator can grant roles and privileges to SPMS to allow certain behaviors

  • Overall Database Administration / Privileges, Roles & Users / Authorize

For many conferences with experienced SPMS administrators, this mechanism to associate Profiles with Roles is also a very useful way to e.g. create mailing lists, maintain lists of committee members, etc.

SPMS Demos

Demonstrations from IPAC'22 SPMS instance of the following useful SPMS functions (links are to wiki documentation):

SPMS Code on Sourceforge

If you are a coder you can take a deep breath and get into the code of SPMS:

This is not for the faint of heart, but has helped me understand (and even fix) SPMS behaviors in the past.

NOTE that SPMS code is basically unmaintained as of 2021. Todd Satogata ehas Matt Arena's phone number and can reach out to him for help in case of severe SPMS misbehavior.

References