Iraq CPM — User Guide

Iraq CPM (Conference Paper Management) is the national platform for managing academic conferences across Iraqi universities — from paper submission through peer review to final editorial decision. This guide walks you through every part of the platform.

Version 2026.05 • Platform: cpm.hu.edu.iq • Support: [email protected]

📖 Platform Overview

Iraq CPM is a multi-tenant platform. Each registered Iraqi university gets its own private space, manages its own conferences, runs its own peer-review workflow, and communicates with its own authors and reviewers — while the platform itself provides the technology, hosting, email delivery, and shared standards.

The platform serves five distinct user types, each with different access and responsibilities:

🚀 Choose Your Role

Click whichever matches what you're here to do — each card jumps to the relevant quick-start.

🔎 Finding a Conference

There are two ways to reach a specific conference on the platform. Use whichever feels more natural — they both end at the same place.

You can also reach a conference directly if someone shared its URL with you. The URL format is:

cpm.hu.edu.iq/cpm.php/{university-slug}/{conference-id}

The Arabic interface uses /cpm.php/ar/{university-slug}/{conference-id}.

🏛 For University Administrators

Registering Your University

Before your university can host conferences on Iraq CPM, an institutional administrator must register the university and wait for approval from the platform's super-admin.

1. From the home page, click Register Your University.
2. You'll see tiles for all 106 Iraqi universities. Click your university's tile — its English and Arabic names lock at the top of the registration form (so they're spelled consistently across the platform).
3. Fill in: the institutional contact person's full name (English & Arabic), their academic title and position, the official institutional contact email, a phone number, and a strong password.
4. Submit. A verification email is sent immediately to the address you entered.
5. Click the verification link in that email. The super-admin then reviews your application — typically within 24 hours.
6. Once approved, you receive a welcome email with your university's unique URL — for example, cpm.hu.edu.iq/cpm.php/your-university-slug. That URL is the public face of your university's conference space.

Creating & Managing Conferences

Once approved, you can create as many conferences as your university hosts. Each is fully independent — its own deadlines, its own tracks, its own author/reviewer/editor accounts.

Creating a Conference

1. Visit your university's URL — cpm.hu.edu.iq/cpm.php/your-slug for an English conference, or cpm.hu.edu.iq/cpm.php/ar/your-slug for an Arabic one — and log in as admin.
2. Click + Create Conference.
3. Fill in: conference title (in the page's language), summary, start and end dates, time, location, organizing department, the conference's own contact email, and the conference chair's information (title, name, position, email).
4. Enter your admin password to confirm and click Save.

Editing or Deleting

Each conference card on your space shows two icon buttons visible only to you as admin: a pencil ✏ for edit, and a trash 🗑 for delete. Both require your admin password.

Setting Deadlines & Tracks

Open a conference and go to Settings to define time windows for:

• Author registration — open and close dates for new author signups
• Paper submission — when papers can be uploaded
• Reviewer registration — when reviewers can sign up
• Editor registration — when editors can sign up
• Review submission — deadline for reviewers to submit their reviews
• Decision notification — when editorial decisions will be communicated

If a window isn't set, the system treats it as always-open. The platform never silently rejects anyone — it always shows a clear "Opens on…" or "Closed on…" message tied to the dates you've configured.

Conference Tracks

If your conference has multiple thematic tracks (e.g. Renewable Energy, AI in Healthcare, Civil Engineering), define them in Settings → Tracks. Each track then becomes:

• A required choice authors make when submitting a paper
• A scope editors select during signup (one editor can manage multiple tracks)
• A filter editors use when assigning reviewers

Managing User Accounts

From the admin dashboard, the Accounts tab lists every user (author, reviewer, editor) registered for your conferences. From here you can:

• View account details — name, email, ORCID, affiliation, role, status
• Assign additional roles — promote an existing author to editor, for example. The user receives a bilingual email notification.
• Impersonate ("Login as") — open the platform as that user to verify what they see. Useful for support.
• Approve or suspend accounts — when manual review is needed.

Admin FAQ

📝 For Authors

Creating an Author Account

Author accounts are conference-specific. Here's how to register:

1. Open the conference URL — either via Find Your University, the Conferences tab, or a direct link shared with you.
2. On the conference page, click the Author card.
3. Click Create one if you don't yet have an account.
4. Fill in: full name, email, affiliation (your university or institution), ORCID URL (required), and a password.
5. Submit. A 6-digit verification code is emailed to you immediately.
6. Enter the code on the next screen. You're now logged in as an author.

Submitting a Paper

After logging in as an author, your dashboard shows a Submit New Paper button. Here's what to expect:

1. Title & Abstract — Enter both in the conference's language (English or Arabic).
2. Keywords — A few short phrases that describe your paper's topic.
3. Track — If the conference has multiple tracks, select the most relevant one.
4. Authors — Add yourself as the corresponding author with your ORCID. Add co-authors with their names, ORCIDs, and affiliations.
5. Paper file — Upload the PDF. If the conference uses double-blind review, anonymize the paper first (see below).
6. Submit. You receive a confirmation email; the paper appears on your dashboard with status Under Review.

Tracking Status & Decisions

Your dashboard shows every paper you've submitted to this conference with its current status:

You receive an email whenever your paper's status changes. Check your inbox and your spam folder, especially the first time.

Revisions (Round 2)

If you get a Minor Revisions or Major Revisions decision, your paper enters a second round:

1. Open the paper detail in your dashboard. You'll see the editor's decision letter and reviewer comments.
2. Read all reviewer feedback carefully and plan your revisions.
3. Prepare a response letter — a separate document addressing each reviewer comment point-by-point. Reviewers value clear, respectful responses.
4. Click Upload Revised Version, attach the revised PDF and the response letter.
5. Submit. Reviewers and editors are notified; round 2 review begins.

Author FAQ

🔬 For Reviewers

Becoming a Reviewer

Reviewers are typically invited by editors but can also sign up directly during a conference's reviewer-registration window:

1. Visit the conference URL during the reviewer-registration window.
2. Click the Reviewer card.
3. Click Create one if you don't have an account.
4. Fill in: name, email, affiliation, ORCID (optional but encouraged), and a password.
5. Verify your email with the 6-digit code.

Once registered, the editor for your area can assign you papers. You'll be notified by email for each assignment.

Writing a Review

When you receive an assignment email, open the conference URL, log in as Reviewer, and click the assigned paper to see its title, abstract, authors (or anonymized info for double-blind), track, and PDF.

1. Download the PDF and read the paper carefully.
2. Click Write Review and fill in the structured form.
3. Score each of these five criteria on a 0–10 scale: Originality, Significance, Methodology, Clarity, References.
4. Provide an overall recommendation: Accept / Minor Revisions / Major Revisions / Reject.
5. Write comments to the editor (private — used for decision-making) and comments to the author (visible to them — used to guide revision).
6. Submit before the deadline.

Reviewer FAQ

📋 For Editors

Becoming an Editor

Editors are usually appointed by the conference chair and given a registration window during which they sign up:

1. Visit the conference URL during the editor-registration window.
2. Click the Editor card and then Create one.
3. Fill in name, email, affiliation, ORCID, and a password. Important: if the conference has multiple tracks, select which track(s) you'll handle.
4. Verify your email and log in.

Assigning Reviewers

When new papers are submitted to your track, they appear in your editor dashboard with status Awaiting Reviewer Assignment:

1. Click a paper to see its abstract, authors, track, and PDF.
2. Click Assign Reviewers. You'll see the list of registered reviewers for this conference.
3. Choose 2–3 reviewers based on their expertise. Avoid conflicts of interest (same institution as the authors, etc.).
4. Set a review deadline (typically 2–4 weeks).
5. Click Send Assignments. Reviewers are notified by email.

Making Decisions

When all assigned reviews are in, the paper's status becomes Decision Pending and you're notified. Open it to see all reviews side-by-side.

1. Read all reviews carefully. Look for points of consensus and disagreement.
2. Write a brief decision letter that summarizes the reviewer feedback and explains your decision.
3. Choose one of: Accept, Minor Revisions, Major Revisions, or Reject.
4. For revisions, set a deadline by which the author must submit the revised version.
5. Click Send Decision. The author and reviewers are notified by email.

For papers requiring revisions, you'll be notified again when the author resubmits — typically the same reviewers handle round 2.

Editor FAQ

🎭 Multi-Role Accounts

The same person can hold multiple roles in a single conference. Common combinations:

• Author + Editor — A senior researcher who submits a paper to a conference and also serves on its editorial team for other tracks.
• Author + Reviewer — A researcher contributing a paper who also reviews colleagues' submissions.
• Reviewer + Editor — An editor who occasionally also reviews directly.
• All three — A senior figure deeply involved in a conference.

When you log in with multiple roles in the same conference, the platform shows a role picker with one card per role. Pick whichever you want to use right now; you can switch later from the top dropdown.

🔒 Privacy & Data

Iraq CPM stores only what's needed to operate the platform: user accounts (name, email, affiliation, ORCID, hashed password), papers (PDF and metadata), reviews, decisions, and conference metadata.

• Passwords are stored hashed using industry-standard bcrypt — never in plain text.
• Paper PDFs are stored on the platform's server and accessible only to authorized users for that conference (author, assigned reviewers, editors of that track, and the university admin).
• Email addresses are not shared between conferences. An author's email at Conference A is not visible to admins of Conference B.
• Reviewer identity remains anonymous to authors permanently.
• Data may be retained indefinitely for academic record-keeping. To request deletion of an account or specific records, contact [email protected].

💬 Getting Help

If you encounter problems or have questions:

• Conference-specific questions (paper status, deadlines, reviewer concerns, editorial decisions) — contact your conference's contact email, shown on the conference page.
• Platform-wide issues (registration problems, technical bugs, password reset failures, data requests) — contact [email protected].
• Live chat — On the home page, the chat bubble in the bottom-right opens a quick-question channel.

We typically respond within 1–2 business days.