Create Conference Tracks

Track Structure and Management

For conferences with multiple research areas or themes, create tracks to organize submissions effectively.

Accessing Track Management

1. Log in to your PaperFox account
2. Go to your conference dashboard
3. Click on "Track Configuration"

Creating Conference Tracks

Create New Track:

• Click "Create Track" from the Track Configuration page
• Fill in required track information
• Configure track settings and deadlines
• Save to create the track

Track Information Required:

• Track Name: Clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Artificial Intelligence", "Data Science")
• Track Slug: URL-friendly identifier (e.g., "ai", "data-science")
• Description: Detailed track scope and objectives
• Submission Deadlines: Track-specific deadlines if different from conference

Import Multiple Tracks at Once

If your conference has many tracks, create them all in one step instead of filling in the form for each one.

1. On the Track Configuration page, click "Import Tracks"
2. Paste your track names into the Paste List tab — one track per line. To give a track a description, add it after a comma.

If you already have your tracks in a spreadsheet, switch to the Upload File tab and upload a CSV or Excel file instead. Without a header row the first column is the track name and the second the optional description; add a header row to name your columns explicitly (see below).

3. Click "Preview" to see exactly what will be created

Every row is labeled before anything is saved:

Names are compared ignoring capitalization, so "Posters" and "posters" count as the same track.

Each row also shows the URL the track will get, like /consumer-behavior. PaperFox builds it from the track name — lowercased, punctuation removed, spaces turned into hyphens, and cut off at 100 characters. A long title such as "Track 4: Emerging Methods for Large-Scale Systems and Their Applications in Practice" therefore produces a long URL that stops mid-word.

To choose the URLs yourself, add a header row with a slug column:

name,slug
Applied Robotics and Control,robotics
Machine Learning Systems,ml-systems

The name, slug, and description columns are matched by their headers in any order, so you only need the ones you have. If you're moving from EasyChair, its Short Name column is recognized as a slug — export name and short name, and your existing abbreviations become the URLs.

4. Click "Import" to create the tracks

Imported tracks get the same defaults as the Create Track form — a submission form, a review form, and a starting deadline — so you can adjust deadlines and review settings afterwards just like any other track. Tracks you skip are never modified.

Managing Conference Tracks

Once tracks are created, you can manage them in two ways:

From the Track Configuration page:

From the Track Management page:

Track Management Capabilities:

• Define track details: name, description, and scope
• Set submission deadlines and requirements
• Configure review criteria, visibility, and access controls
• Monitor submissions and review progress
• Handle review assignments and final decisions

Reorder Tracks

Use the drag handle on the left of each track card to set the order tracks appear in. The order is shared everywhere tracks are listed — the management page, the public conference page, and the submission picker your authors see.

Drag a track card up or down by its handle, and PaperFox saves the new order immediately.

Track Configuration Settings

Track Settings:

• Scope and Topics: Define what types of submissions fit this track
• Submission Requirements: Track-specific formatting or content requirements
• Review Criteria: Specialized review criteria for this track
• Deadlines: Track-specific submission and review deadlines
• Visibility: Public visibility settings for the track

Next Steps: Invite Track Chairs

Congratulations! You have successfully created your conference tracks. Now you can invite track chairs to help manage each track.

Track chairs will be responsible for:

• Managing track-specific submissions
• Inviting and managing reviewers
• Configuring submission and review forms
• Making final decisions for their track

Ready to invite track chairs?

• Invite Track Chairs - Send invitations to track chairs for your newly created tracks