ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
We warmly invite researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders to submit abstracts to the Neobiota 2026 conference via Pensoft’s ARPHA platform or the ARPHA Writing Tool. While some authors may be unfamiliar with this system, it provides a streamlined submission and review workflow and ensures that all accepted abstracts are published open access with a permanent, citable DOI, enhancing their visibility and long-term discoverability. The platform also allows authors to include references, figures, tables, and supplementary materials directly within their abstract.
→ Go to: Types of contributions
→ Go to: How to submit your abstract?
→ Go to: Timeline
→ Go to: Instructions for abstract submission
→ Go to: ARPHA-related FAQs
Types of contributions
The conference welcomes three types of contributions:
Posters are presented during dedicated poster sessions. If your poster abstract is accepted, you will receive a link to create or upload your poster to Kubify e-poster service, which will be used for poster display during the conference.
Speed talks are short oral presentations of 5 minutes, followed by 1 minute for questions. These talks are intended for concise and focused contributions, and will be grouped in dedicated speed-talk sessions.
Standard oral contributions consist of a 12-minute presentation followed by 3 minutes for questions. These contributions can be submitted either to a Thematic Session or to a General Session.
To submit an abstract, authors should make sure they are registered users and their account is confirmed. To register, visit ARPHA Conference Abstracts and follow these instructions. After confirming your account by setting up a password, go to the Pensoft website, select Start new Abstract, create the draft, and make sure you select the Neobiota conference from the drop down menu. This choice determines both the type of contribution and, where relevant, the session to which the abstract is assigned, so we kindly ask authors to make this selection carefully.
When drafting your abstract, you will be asked to select your contribution type from a single list. This list includes Posters, Speed talks, and the various Thematic or General Sessions available for standard oral presentations.
We strongly encourage authors wishing to give a standard oral presentation to select a Thematic Session if their work fits the specific scope. If your oral contribution does not align with a thematic session, please select one of the General Sessions from the list. If you prefer to present a Poster or a Speed talk, please select those options directly.
Thematic Sessions are coordinated by dedicated session convenors, who also act as guest editors during the review process. Posters, speed talks, and contributions submitted to General Sessions are reviewed by members of the Scientific Committee.
Timeline
☞ Final submission of abstracts = 15 April 2026
☞ Notification of acceptance of abstracts = 15 May 2026
☞ Final programme announcement = 31 May 2026
Instructions for abstract submission
You will be using Pensoft’s ARPHA online publishing platform to submit your abstract to ARPHA Conference Abstracts (ACA).
Log in or register at ARPHA Conference Abstracts. You will need to accept the Terms of Use, if you are new to the system. Keep in mind, however, that the emails might be misinterpreted as spam, so please whitelist these notifications.
To start a new abstract, click the “Start new Abstract” button. Clicking this button takes you to the ARPHA Writing Tool and creates a new Untitled abstract with some of the author metadata available in the user account in ARPHA. These can be easily updated, if needed.
If you have already started an abstract and are coming back to work on it, log in to ARPHA directly. After logging in, you will see your work in “My recent manuscripts.” Click on the manuscript title, or click on “See More” to go to your dashboard to find all manuscripts on which you are listed as an author, their status, and revision history. If you have accidentally created an additional abstract, you can delete it there. You can also start new abstracts from there, but you will need to specify the journal (ACA) and the manuscript type (conference abstract).
Click “Collections” in the top navigation bar of your manuscript after you have opened it, and select (collection title and link to the details available o ACA’s website). This step is very important, as your abstract cannot be directed to the correct editors otherwise. Note that both authors and editors now have the ability to change the collection designation, but only when they have control of the manuscript.
Next, fill in your abstract’s metadata from the list at the left by hovering over a category, and clicking on the pencil icon.
The only mandatory fields are “Title”, “Author”, “Abstract”, “Keywords”, “Presenting Author” and “Presented At”.
The submitting author and affiliation are taken from the profile of the logged-in user. Make sure that there is an author designated as the corresponding author.
Add co-authors by clicking the icon beside “Authors” in the panel on the left. Make sure to add affiliations for all authors. When adding co-authors, please specify what rights each is to be granted with: Comment only or Edit and comment. Note that it is a responsibility of the contributing author(s) to notify all authors of this submission and their rights regarding commenting or editing. The corresponding author and the order of the authors can be changed from the same menu (use the up/down arrows located to the right of their names). The corresponding author needs to be available to communicate about the abstract until final acceptance for publication. The presenting author is the person that will deliver the presentation at the conference.
Please note that submissions are limited to 600 words (including references). The submission must be in English and address the conference.
Consider embedding links (URLs) to institutions and concepts that will help readers to fully grasp the topic you present and its context.
If you wish to include references, start by creating the reference list, so that you can later link it to your text.
Please proofread your submission carefully. Once it is approved, it cannot be (easily) changed.
You may add references (note that these will be included in the 600-word count), one figure, and one table by clicking on the appropriate icons. You may also upload supplementary materials associated with the abstract. None of these are mandatory.
Click “Validate” to ensure that mandatory fields are filled in, you have not exceeded the character limit, and the abstract is assigned to a collection. Be sure to execute this step, even if you and your co-authors are not finished writing or reviewing your submission yet.
When you are ready to submit your abstract, click “Submit for Technical Review.” This will send the manuscript to the organizers of your session, who will review it for relevance. You will receive an auto-generated confirmation email (do not reply to this address) and the status of the manuscript will be indicated as “In pre-submission review”. At this stage, you will be able to see the work of the technical editors and their suggested changes and/or comments, but you will NOT be able to edit your submission while it is in pre-submission review. You will need to wait until you receive official notice that your feedback has been requested; you will not need to ask technical editors to make changes.
The technical editors may accept or reject your submission, or may request changes, or suggest that the Programme Committee move your submission to a different session. Note that if a submission is returned to you for changes, its status will return to Draft. Only authors will have access to the abstract until you make changes, and redo the steps for validation and resubmission, after resolving all issues. Note that the editors can view resolved issues, so if you have feedback (e.g., you do not agree with a suggested change or want to send further feedback to the editors), please add it there as a comment / response. Your manuscript may require more than one cycle of revision, so please address communications promptly. Please use track changes to make it easier for the editors to see where you have made changes to the abstract. Accept or reject suggestions by editors also using track changes.
Once the abstract is approved, you will be able to see the “Submit to the journal” button in your manuscript submission. Before clicking on it, double check that the name of the person making the presentation at the conference is correct and use the “Validate” button to make sure there are no lingering issues. You will not be able to submit the abstract if there are any issues. Click on the blue text for each issue to resolve it. A successful validation will only show the number of characters in your abstract. Any last changes need to be made now, before you click the “Submit” button. When you are ready to submit your abstract for publication, click the “Submit to the journal” button, then go through the checklist of submission steps.
The first item in the checklist concerns the license and copyright of your abstract. The default is CC-BY 4.0 with copyright attributed to the authors. However, if any author is a U.S. or Canadian government employee, you must specify CC-0. Any other issues should be referred to the journal’s Help Desk.
The final step asks you to assign categories (taxon, geographic area, scientific subject, geological era) to your submission; complete this step if applicable.
When the submission process is finalised, the abstract goes directly to production for publication, a DOI is assigned, and the abstract cannot be revised further.
If, after your manuscript has been approved, you fail to complete all of the steps, you may see it tagged as “Incomplete Submission”, even if an ID has been assigned to it in ACA. Because this is now has an ACA- identifier, you must access actions to complete the submission (or delete it) via the ACA website, instead of ARPHA’s.
If, at any time, you need further assistance, check the Tips and Tricks link or if you fail to find an answer to your question, send an email to the journal’s technical staff via the system. Click “Helpdesk” on the top bar to open a new window with an email form that you can fill in.
What is a collection? What is a collection editor?
Pensoft allows articles to be grouped into “collections” (typically around a theme). (collection title) is a collection [and it includes xxx sub-collections – when any]. You are a collection editor (aka technical editor within ARPHA) if you are the primary contact (and sometimes those listed as “contributors”) for your sub-collection.
My abstract has been approved and it validates but why don’t I see a “Submit to journal” button?
You may not be the designated Submitting author. To check this, open the Authors metadata (top left choice) to Manage Authors and make sure that despite the fact that you may be “Corresponding Author” that “Make submitting author” is not an option to be chosen next to your name. If it is (and one of your co-authors does not have this), click on the button to make you the submitting author, save the changes, and see if you now can submit the abstract to the journal. You may need to log out of ARPHA and/or your browser to have changes made reflect properly when you log back in. If you still have any issues, you are welcome to contact the help desk.
I use more than one email for my work. How do I choose one?
In the ARPHA editorial platform, you should use only one email account that you check regularly, will have persistence, and that you do not mind being public (the system displays it publicly to other users and in published papers). This way, all your tasks will display under a single account and you will not need to log in and out and access several dashboards for a single journal. The editorial platform allows users to have different roles within the same journal and also in other journals hosted by Pensoft. The system does not allow adding more than one email per account and is not set to enable sending a copy of the same notification to an alternative email of the same user. If you have been asked to merge two or more accounts into a single one, Pensoft will need to choose one of the emails as primary. This is also used to send alerts and newsletters of Pensoft journal content to which you may subscribe.
Nevertheless, if you are an author and need to credit a particular institution for the work you are presenting, modify your affiliation in the author metadata for each abstract or manuscript submitted.
How do I know the status of my abstract?
Sign into ARPHA. Your abstract(s) are listed under the My Manuscripts tab (text will be gray) on your dashboard. On the right of each manuscript, you can see its status. Note that only one person can work on an abstract at a time. If you are not actively working on a manuscript, please close the window to give others a chance to contribute.
In the Draft stage, authors have editing rights; editors see as read-only; authors must submit the abstract for review, so that the abstract can proceed to editorial assessment.
In pre-submission review, authors see as read-only; technical editors are able to make changes to the abstract and add comments. Authors may see these updates, but will not be able to make changes until the editors return the abstract back to the authors using the Send Feedback button. Pressing the Send Feedback button returns the abstract to Draft mode, so that the authors can respond.
Once your abstract has been approved for submission, it will go through various stages (including In Layout) before it is published. The submitting author will then have one final publication checklist to complete.
If you fail to complete the final publication checklist, your abstract may be marked as “Incomplete Submission.” You will get three automated warnings to remedy this before the system automatically buries/removes your submission.
Both authors and technical editors can send email (see icon near the top of the page) to co-authors and/or editors at any time during the pre-approval process, this does not change the status of the manuscript. If you use this step, please fully reference your manuscript ID, the issue(s) and the person(s) you think should be responding to the email. The system sends individual emails out so no one receiving them knows who else is being asked to address your question.
Abstracts will not be published immediately, but notification of acceptance will be sent to the authors, in case they need to report their work.
What if I don’t see my abstract anywhere?
It is possible that you have more than one ARPHA account under different emails. Please merge them if this is the case.
Another possibility is that the ARPHA platform has automatically archived your abstract due to prolonged inactivity (does so after three ignored email warnings). You will need to notify Pensoft to retrieve such an abstract. Please make sure all communications include an article identifier (ID#) in subject line. When it is returned, it will be in Draft mode and you will need to validate and resubmit it for technical evaluation. Editors will not be able to work on or accept a manuscript in Draft status.
Where will I find published abstracts?
See published abstract collections on the ACA website. Sign up for email notifications of newly published content from ACA after signing in (see point 4 of this section for instructions.
Additional Tips:
• The most common non-compliance with the journal’s standards are: missing authors’ affiliations, non-active or missing links (URLs), incorrect citing of the references (reference cited in text does not match reference from list). There are also typos and wording issues (keep in mind that native English speakers may also oversee such errors).
• Note that emails originating from pensoft.net that may concern your communications with authors are often misinterpreted as spam. If authors seem unresponsive, consider contacting them using an alternative email of yours, which is not associated with the ARPHA platform. Because of the same reasons, please whitelist these communications.
• When you use the ARPHA email system, it sends out individual emails to each of the recipients, meaning that addressees will not know who else has received your email (and you don’t get a copy either). This can lead to some duplication of effort for some tasks. Be aware of this feature and consider whether another platform may be more appropriate for some communications.
• Note that the ARPHA platform may send out automatic reminders to authors in case of prolonged inactivity, and that after three ignored notifications, the system will automatically archive such manuscripts (you will not able to see them anymore). If this happens, either you, or the author, will need to notify Pensoft to retrieve the abstract. Please make sure all communications include the manuscript identifier (ID#) in the subject line and the author’s name in the text of the message.
• If you fail to receive email notifications about abstract submissions submitted to sessions that you are an organizer of, it might be because your account in the ARPHA system is associated with multiple email addresses (please contact the journal staff for help). Alternatively, it might be because your spam filter is marking these emails as spam (please whitelist communications from pensoft.net). If you are still having issues, please contact the journal’s help desk.