Digitalizing Scholarly Communication: Development and Functional Validation of a Web-Based Scientific Conference Management System
TL;DR
A standalone web-based system for managing scientific conferences, with a focus on manuscript submission and peer review, developed using the Waterfall model provides a technical basis for a more structured process of research dissemination and scholarly communication.
Abstract
This study developed a standalone web-based system for managing scientific conferences, with a focus on manuscript submission and peer review. The work used the Waterfall model. Development moved through requirements analysis, system design, implementation, and functional validation. The requirements analysis identified four user roles: admin, reviewer, author, and guest. It also defined the main functions needed for manuscript submission, verification, reviewer assignment, review and feedback, status monitoring, and Letter of Acceptance (LoA) issuance. The system used separate frontend and backend components. Vue.js was used for the frontend, Laravel for the backend, and MySQL for the database. The components communicated through a JSON-based RESTful API. Functional validation was carried out with scenario-based black-box testing to check whether each function met its stated requirement without examining the source code. In total, 59 test scenarios were run. Every scenario produced the expected output, giving a 100% functional conformity rate. The results show that the system can perform the defined conference management functions within one digital platform for manuscript submission and peer review. It therefore provides a technical basis for a more structured process of research dissemination and scholarly communication. Further work is still needed to evaluate usability, performance, accessibility, security, and user satisfaction before its broader effectiveness can be assessed.