Getting into the dashboard
Follow the invitation link you received by email, or go to dashboard.fourwaves.com and sign in.
Once signed in, select the event you were added to as Program Chair.
You'll land on the event dashboard with a left-hand menu showing Overview, Submission > Submissions, Peer Review > Reviews, and Program.
Click any section in the menu to expand it and see its sub-pages.
What is a Program Chair?
A Program Chair is a committee member who helps run the scientific/academic side of an event. You assign submissions to reviewers, decide on submission outcomes, build the schedule, and communicate with authors, presenters, and reviewers.
Overview
The Overview page gives you a snapshot of the event: its dates and location, and quick counts for submissions and reviews.
Submissions
The Submissions page lists every submission made to the event, with columns for the submitter's name, email, track, presentation type, decision status, assigned reviews, review score, and more.
For each submission you can:
View and edit submission details.
See the reviews for that submission.
Edit decisions: accept, reject, or change the decision on a submission's presentation type(s).
Assign reviewers to one or more submissions.
Add submissions to sessions across the entire schedule (Program).
Contact authors and presenters by email.
Withdraw or delete a submission.
Export the submission list to Excel, export submission files, and generate booklets, poster tags, or certificates for presenters.
To open a submission:
Hover over its title and click Quick view to see a summary panel on the right (submitter info, decisions, and scheduled sessions) without leaving the list.
Click Full view inside that panel (or the title itself) to open the complete submission page, with Info and Reviews tabs. The Reviews tab shows every review assigned to that specific submission.
From this page you can also edit the submission or withdraw it.
To act on one or more submissions:
Select the checkbox next to each submission you want to act on (or the header checkbox to select all).
A toolbar appears above the table with: Contact, Assign reviewers, Add to sessions, Edit decisions, Edit, and Delete.
Click on the action you need:
Contact opens an email composer addressed to the selected submissions' authors/presenters. See Select recipients for submission emails and Send mass emails for more details:
Assign reviewers opens a short wizard where you pick the reviewer(s), the assignment method, and review settings. For more details, see the Assign submissions to reviewers article:
Add to sessions shows every session that's already been added to the schedule, across every day, so you can add the selected submission(s) to any of them. See Add presentations in your schedule for more:
Edit decisions lets you set the decision (Accepted, Rejected, Pending) separately for all/any of your presentation types. See Change the decision of one or more submissions for more:
Edit opens the submission(s) for editing.
Delete permanently removes the submission(s).
Peer Review
The Reviews page lists every review, for every submission and reviewer, in one place.
From here you can:
View any completed reviews or reviews that still need to be completed, including their scores and written comments.
Edit a review on a reviewer's behalf if a correction is needed.
Contact a reviewer directly from this page.
Delete a review.
See which reviews are To review, Completed, or flagged as a Conflict of interest. Reviewers can declare a conflict of interest themselves, from inside their own review, which is how a review ends up in that state.
Use Search, Filters, and Columns the same way as on the Submissions page to narrow down what you're looking at.
To open a review: click the submission's title. You'll see the full submission (abstract, presentation type, uploaded files) and the reviewer's score: an overall score, plus a score for each criterion the form asks about, and their written comments.
To edit a review: click Edit next to the reviewer's name, then update any score or comment and save. Useful if a reviewer made a mistake.
To act on one or more reviews:
Select the checkbox next to each review you want to act on.
A toolbar appears with Contact and Delete.
Contact opens an email composer addressed to the reviewer(s) you selected. It's the same composer used from the Submissions page, just addressed to reviewers instead of authors/presenters.
Delete permanently removes the review.
Reassigning a review to someone else? There's no separate "reassign" button, deleting the review is the mechanism. If a reviewer declares a conflict of interest, or you simply need a different person on it: delete their review here, then go to Submission > Submissions, select the submission, and use Assign reviewers to assign it to someone new.
Program
The page opens on a day-by-day, time-blocked view of the schedule. If your event runs across several days, use the date tabs near the top to switch days. Each time slot shows the sessions scheduled then (name, room, track, and description). Unlike a Track Chair, who only sees sessions in their assigned track(s), a Program Chair can see every track across the entire schedule.
On this page you can:
Add, edit, or delete sessions (name, description, time, room, track).
Add a livestream link (Zoom, YouTube, etc.) to a session by attaching it to a virtual room.
Add presentations to a session and set their order and individual time slots.
Tag sessions for filtering.
Export the schedule.
To create a new session: scroll all the way to the bottom of the day, then click Add session.
To edit an existing session: hover over the session and click the Edit (pencil) icon. This opens the session's form, where you can update its name, description, time, room, and track.
To tag a session: click Add tag on the session card and choose (or create) a tag. Tags give you a way to mark sessions for filtering beyond track (for example, by theme or format). See Creating and using tags on sessions in the schedule for more.
To see what's inside a session: expand Presentations (#) on the session card. Each presentation has six dots on its left you can click and drag to reorder it, or you can set an individual time slot for each one, or remove a presentation from the session entirely. See Set presentation times for more on the different ways to schedule presentation times.
To add a livestream link (Zoom, YouTube, etc.) to a session: open the session's Room field and choose a room that's already set up with a livestream, or create a new room and set it up there. To edit an existing room, click the pencil icon next to the Room field.
This opens the Edit room panel, where you can set the room's Live stream field.
Click the Live stream dropdown to see the options: None, Virtual poster session, or External platform (Zoom, YouTube, Vimeo, and other services like Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex). Pick External platform and paste the livestream URL in the field that appears.
The livestream link lives on the room, not the session; any session assigned to that room automatically inherits it. Note that even though the Join button shows on the public program page, attendees need to be logged in to their Fourwaves account and registered for the event to actually access the livestream. See Creating Livestream Links for more.
To add a presentation to a session: click Add presentation inside the session. This takes you to the Submissions page. See Add presentations in your schedule for more.
To export the schedule: click Export in the top right corner of the Program page.
Quick Reference: where do I go to...
Task | Where to go |
Check event stats at a glance | Overview |
See every submission | Submission > Submissions |
See the reviews for one specific submission | Open the submission → Reviews tab |
Email an author or presenter | Submission > Submissions → select row(s) → Contact |
Assign a reviewer to a submission | Submission > Submissions → select row(s) → Assign reviewers |
Accept/reject a submission | Submission > Submissions → select row(s) → Edit decisions |
Withdraw or delete a submission | Open the submission's Full view → Withdraw, or select row(s) → Delete |
Check on a reviewer's progress across the event | Peer review > Reviews |
Correct a review's score or comments | Peer review > Reviews → open the review → edit → Save |
Email a reviewer | Peer review > Reviews → select row(s) → Contact |
Reassign a review to someone else | Peer review > Reviews → Delete the review, then Submissions → Assign reviewers |
Build or edit the schedule | Program |
Add a livestream link to a session | Program → edit the session → set/create a virtual Room with the link |
Add a talk/poster to a session | Program → open the session → Add presentation |
Export the submission list, schedule, certificates, etc. | Submission > Submissions → Actions, or Program → Export |
What's outside your access
As a Program Chair, you will not be able to:
Open or edit the event website, pages, or branding (the Website tab is visible in your menu, but access to it stays with the Organizer role).
Manage registrations, payments, invoices, or coupon codes.
Change event settings or add/remove other committee members (that's managed under Settings > Committee, which only Organizers can access).