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Selecting the right Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) requires careful evaluation - from understanding your lab's needs to implementing the solution across your team. This Electronic Lab Notebook guide walks you through key considerations.
The transition from paper to digital lab notebooks represents a transformative shift in research documentation and management. Today's Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) are far more than digital notebooks; they serve as comprehensive platforms for secure data management, seamless collaboration, protocol standardization and inventory and sample tracking. For organizations working in regulated environments, some ELNs provide built-in compliance features to align with stringent requirements like the FDA's CFR 21 Part 11 as well as GMP and GLP guidelines.
Choosing the right ELN for your lab requires a clear understanding of your unique needs and priorities. To help you define your lab’s priorities, we've developed a framework of essential questions to evaluate your lab's needs and match them with the right ELN solution.
Guiding Questions:
An ELN's adoption by prestigious organizations often reflects its reliability, security, and capacity to meet complex research requirements. Leveraging the decisions of research organizations similar to your own can save time, as often these organizations have invested considerable resources into evaluating multiple ELN solutions.
LabArchives was the first ELN to be adopted enterprise-wide at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is also trusted by over 650 world-leading research organizations, including top universities, government agencies, and biotechnology companies. This widespread adoption by leading organizations demonstrates its ability to meet the most demanding research documentation and compliance requirements.
When choosing an ELN, consider whether a simple digital note-taking solution will suffice. While basic tools like OneNote can handle straightforward documentation needs, purpose-built Electronic Lab Notebooks offer research-specific functionalities and integrations that place your notes within a broader experimental context.
LabArchives ELN enables researchers to organize data hierarchically—by projects, experiments, and entries. Researchers can also link ELN research data to Inventory items, protocols, or related experiments. Whether you're documenting detailed protocols or quick observations, everything fits logically within your broader research narrative.
The best solutions strike a balance between powerful functionality and ease of use. Before committing, explore the platform's interface using available demos, screenshots, and tutorials to ensure it aligns with your team's technical comfort level.
LabArchives is an intuitive Electronic Lab Notebook that offers comprehensive training resources, including video tutorials, documentation, and live support. You can request a one-on-one demo to learn more about the LabArchives ELN and suite of accompanying applications to assess their alignment with your lab’s needs.
Advanced search capabilities are one of the key advantages of digital documentation over paper notebooks. Evaluate how thoroughly you can search through your data—can you quickly locate specific experiments, protocols, or results? Consider whether the search function covers not only titles and text but also file contents and metadata.
LabArchives offers powerful search features that scan across your entire research hierarchy. You can locate specific data, protocols, or results within seconds, including search terms and metadata within uploaded files.
Your ELN should support all the file types commonly used in your research, allowing you to store them in one central location. The platform should enable seamless importing, viewing, and management of these files directly within your notebook.
LabArchives accepts virtually all file types and offers integrated file viewers for many common formats. Additionally, LabArchives makes it easy to access, edit, and save many file types – along with version histories – while working within your ELN.
Your ELN should work seamlessly with the tools and software you already use. Consider whether the platform can integrate with commonly used research applications, data analysis tools, and institutional systems to streamline your workflow.
LabArchives offers robust integrations with essential research and productivity tools. The LabArchives seamless integration with Microsoft Office Online enables you to create, edit, and save Office documents like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly within your notebook. LabArchives also supports popular tools like GraphPad, Snapgene, and iChemLabs, while the LabArchives API allows for custom integrations with institutional systems and specialized research software.
Standardizing research documentation across teams is crucial for ensuring data quality and reproducibility. An effective ELN should offer tools that promote consistent documentation practices while remaining adaptable to diverse research workflows.
LabArchives empowers researchers to create custom notebook templates, creating consistent structures for recurring experiments, while interactive–and customizable–widgets enable standardized data entry forms, calculations, and specialized research tools. These features save time and ensure all team members adhere to established protocols and documentation standards, enhancing data consistency and improving experimental reproducibility.
Effective lab documentation requires the ability to track samples and research materials used in experiments. Your ELN should make it easy to maintain these connections.
LabArchives' Inventory List feature provides a powerful way to link LabArchives Inventory to your ELN. You can create custom lists to easily associate inventory items with specific notebook pages and experiments. This direct link ensures clear records of the materials used in each experiment, enhancing data accuracy and reproducibility.
For some teams, formal signing and witnessing of digital research records are essential for regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and data validation. For these researchers, the ELN should provide secure, legally binding electronic signature capabilities that meet both institutional and regulatory requirements.
LabArchives offers a comprehensive electronic signature workflow that allows researchers to officially sign their work and designate witnesses to review and countersign entries. LabArchives complies with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 requirements, making it suitable for regulated research environments while also streamlining the signing and witnessing workflow.
Data loss can severely impact research progress, making robust backup systems essential. Your ELN should offer multiple layers of data protection, including automated cloud backups and options for local copies of your research records.
LabArchives guarantees the security and accessibility of your data with robust backup solutions. The LabArchives cloud infrastructure automatically maintains redundant backups of your data across geographically distributed servers. For additional peace of mind, you can easily export your notebooks as PDFs or create offline HTML versions for local storage. These flexible backup options ensure you'll always have access to your research data, whether online or offline while also meeting institutional data retention requirements.
Cloud-based access has transformed how researchers interact with their data. Your ELN should offer secure, convenient access to your research documentation whether at your desk, in the lab, or on the go.
LabArchives combines industry-leading data security with the flexibility of cloud accessibility. You can access your entire research database through any web browser, with mobile-optimized viewing on phones and tablets. Whether checking protocols at the bench, reviewing data during meetings, or uploading photos directly from your device, LabArchives ensures your research is always accessible—without compromising security or functionality.
The choice between cloud and local hosting can impact accessibility, security, and IT requirements. Cloud solutions offer access from anywhere and automatic updates, while local installations may better align with specific institutional policies or security requirements. As of June 30, 2024, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were required to use “only electronic resources to document new and ongoing research, consistent with the NARA/OMB Federal wide Transition to Electronic Records mandate.” To meet these new requirements, the NIH has outlined specifics of what this means for scientists and their ELNs as well as the requirements for cloud and local server use. Make sure your ELN has the security measures in place and the flexibility to accommodate your security requirements.
LabArchives offers secure, cloud-based hosting with robust infrastructure to ensure your data is both accessible and protected. The LabArchives platform meets stringent security standards while offering the flexibility of web-based access from any location. Redundant copies of your LabArchives ELN can be saved as PDF or HTML files locally.
Consider not just your current team size but your future growth plans. How easily can you add new users or research groups? Does the licensing model accommodate expansion? What about storage capacity and performance with larger datasets?
LabArchives scales seamlessly from individual researchers to enterprise-wide deployments. LabArchives’ flexible licensing options and robust infrastructure ensure your ELN can grow alongside your research program.
Modern research demands efficient communication and data sharing within research teams. Whether coordinating with colleagues down the hall or remote collaborators, your ELN should make it easy to keep everyone updated on the latest research developments.
LabArchives enables real-time collaboration through shared notebooks and flexible permission settings. Team members can work together on entries, share protocols, and provide feedback through comments while maintaining a complete audit trail of contributions. The @mention feature allows users to tag colleagues, triggering instant email notifications to ensure important insights are never overlooked.
Different team members often require varying levels of access to research data. Setting precise permissions helps maintain data security while enabling effective collaboration. It is also important to consider what happens when a lab member leaves. Can you retain or gain access to notebook entries created by other users within your group after they depart? Make sure your ELN allows for this continuity of access.
LabArchives provides comprehensive permission controls at multiple levels - from entire notebooks to individual entries. Administrators can easily manage user roles and access rights, ensuring team members can access only the data they need for their work. With LabArchives ELN, access for departing lab members can be easily adjusted, whether that involves transferring Notebook ownership or modifying permissions. If needed, a copy of the notebook can be exported for the departing member, or they can be set up as an external collaborator to retain access, depending on what is most appropriate.
For labs operating under regulatory oversight, compliance features are required. Consider whether the ELN meets applicable regulatory requirements like the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11 and GxP guidelines.
LabArchives supports comprehensive compliance with built-in features like electronic signatures, detailed audit trails, and automated timestamping. Trusted by research organizations worldwide, the LabArchives platform meets FDA 21 CFR Part 11 requirements and adheres to GxP compliance standards. Additionally, LabArchives ELN was the first ELN solution to achieve the FedRAMP "In Process" designation. This rigorous federal security assessment program evaluates over 300 security controls, making it one of the most stringent security frameworks in the cloud software industry.
Data security and intellectual property (IP) protection are vital priorities for any research institution. Your ELN should provide clear policies about data ownership and implement robust security measures to protect your intellectual property.
LabArchives leads the industry in data security with enterprise-grade security featuring end-to-end encryption, continuous security monitoring, and redundant data centers. Every entry is automatically timestamped and protected, providing essential documentation for patent applications and IP protection.
A robust audit trail is essential for protecting research integrity, as it documents the complete history of research activities. This thorough documentation helps validate your research and serves as a safeguard against allegations of misconduct.
LabArchives maintains comprehensive, tamper-proof audit trails for all ELN activities. Every addition, modification, or annotation is automatically timestamped and attributed to a specific user. The LabArchives Revision History system lets you track changes over time and review previous versions of any entry, ensuring comprehensive documentation of your team’s contributions.
Implementing a new ELN requires adequate support to ensure successful adoption in your lab. It's important to evaluate both the initial training resources and the ongoing technical support provided by your vendor.
LabArchives offers comprehensive support through multiple channels. The dedicated enterprise success team provides personalized onboarding, while extensive training resources include live webinars, video tutorials, and knowledge base. With an enterprise license, your team will have the guidance and assistance needed to maximize the platform's benefits.
For researchers who also teach laboratory courses, having an ELN dedicated to educational settings provides valuable continuity between research and teaching. Consider whether the platform offers specific features for managing student work and course materials.
LabArchives ELN for Education is a dedicated education platform specifically designed for use in teaching laboratory courses while maintaining the full functionalities of LabArchives ELN. Instructors can create and distribute course notebooks, monitor student progress in real time, and provide direct feedback on assignments.
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