Source: Own Illustration
Experiment logs, measurement data, analyses, and notes are part of everyday research life. However, this information is often stored in various locations: in lab notebooks, on network drives, in email attachments, or on personal computers. This can make it difficult to retrieve data, trace workflows, or share information with colleagues.
Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) offer a digital solution to this problem. They enable structured documentation of research processes and help researchers make their work traceable, efficient, and accessible over the long term.
What Is an ELN?
An Electronic Lab Notebook is the digital version of the traditional lab notebook. Experiments, observations, measurements, and results can be documented centrally and linked to additional information. Unlike paper-based lab notebooks, entries can be searched, files can be attached directly, and information can be easily shared with others. In addition, entries are automatically time-stamped and changes are documented, ensuring that the creation and editing of research data remain traceable at all times.
ELNs thus help make research processes more transparent and reproducible. At the same time, they facilitate collaboration within research groups and across institutional boundaries.
ELN@RWTH: RWTH’s Central ELN Service
To support researchers in digital research documentation, RWTH Aachen University provides a central ELN service called ELN@RWTH. The service is based on the open-source software eLabFTW, which is flexible in its application and not limited to specific disciplines.
This centralized service offers several advantages: Data is stored on RWTH’s secure servers, regularly backed up, and managed via the existing RWTH infrastructure. In addition, users benefit from centralized support and advisory services. The ELN@RWTH team also assists researchers in setting up their work environments, offers training, and provides guidance on transitioning from paper-based to digital lab notebooks.
Benefits for Everyday Research
Using an ELN can simplify many challenges of daily research work:
- Quickly retrieving information: While paper-based notebooks often require tedious searching, eLabFTW enables full-text search as well as the use of keywords and filters. This allows protocols and experimental results to be found much more quickly.
- Combining data and context: Measurement data, images, PDFs, or other files can be directly assigned to an experiment entry. This ensures that data and its history remain permanently linked.
- Facilitating collaboration: Information can be shared selectively throughout the entire ELN instance. Role- and permission-based concepts enable controlled collaboration without losing the traceability of changes.
- Long-term preservation of research data: While data on personal devices can be lost, data in the central ELN@RWTH service is stored on RWTH’s secure server infrastructure. Regular backups help ensure the long-term availability of research documentation.
- Supporting research data management: ELNs make an important contribution to sound research data management. Timestamps, version histories, metadata, and export functions support the traceability of scientific work and help meet the requirements of funding organizations and guidelines for good scientific practice. Entries can be exported in various formats, such as PDF, JSON, CSV, or the ELN format.
Who Is ELN@RWTH Suitable For?
An ELN is particularly useful for researchers who regularly conduct experiments, generate extensive datasets, or collaborate in larger teams. Core facilities and technical departments can also benefit from centralized and structured documentation.
Furthermore, ELNs are becoming increasingly important in fields outside of traditional laboratory sciences, such as engineering. Here, they can help consolidate information from various sources and streamline workflows.
How to Get Started
Interested researchers can first get a feel for the features by trying out the demo version of eLabFTW. They can then set up their own team using the team request form. To do so, the completed form must be sent to the IT-ServiceDesk. After onboarding, additional team members can be added and shared documentation structures can be established.
Use of ELN@RWTH is free of charge for RWTH researchers.
Further Information
Detailed information about RWTH’s central ELN service can be found on the IT Center website and in IT Center Help.
If you have any questions about ELN@RWTH, our team will be happy to assist you. We look forward to helping you get started with digital research documentation.
Responsible for the content of this article are Hania Eid and Nicole Parks.
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