{"id":326,"date":"2016-04-27T18:53:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T18:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/?page_id=326"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:06:28","slug":"electronic-lab-notebooks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/store\/electronic-lab-notebooks\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) enable researchers to organize and store experimental procedures, protocols, notes, and data, using their computer or mobile device. ELNs can offer several advantages over the traditional paper notebook in documenting research during the active phase of a project, including searchability within and across notebooks, secure storage with multiple redundancies, remote access to notebooks, and the ability to easily share notebooks among team members and collaborators.<\/p>\n<h2>LabArchives<\/h2>\n<p>There are many options when it comes to ELNs, each offering unique features for various research workflows \u2013 both within and outside a laboratory environment. MIT Information Systems and Technology (IS&amp;T) provides an enterprise license to <a href=\"http:\/\/labarchives.mit.edu\/\">LabArchives<\/a>, a cloud-based ELN system, making it available at no cost to MIT faculty, staff, students and affiliates. Additional support for LabArchives is provided by MIT Libraries\/Data Management Services.<\/p>\n<p>To use MIT\u2019s enterprise LabArchives license, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/labarchives.mit.edu\">http:\/\/labarchives.mit.edu<\/a>, authenticate via Touchstone, and then activate an enterprise account.<\/p>\n<h3>Resources<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Have questions about LabArchives or about customizing lab notebooks for early MIT adopters? Set up a consultation, ask questions, or provide feedback, by emailing <a href=\"mailto:labarchives-support@mit.edu\">labarchives-support@mit.edu<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/kb.mit.edu\/confluence\/x\/HcEwCQ\">LabArchives FAQ in the MIT Knowledge Base<\/a> links to overview documents and \u201chow-to\u201d instructions, from sharing your ELN to creating an offline notebook.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Other options<\/h2>\n<p>While not offered via an MIT enterprise license, there are a lot of other options out there. Here are some ways of exploring them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Darmstadt TU&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/eln-finder.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de\/home\">ELN finder<\/a>, with over 40 filter criteria<\/li>\n<li><span id=\"detail-share-btn-require-link-expiration\" data-share-btn-require-link-expiration=\"false\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.4723752\">Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) Comparison Matrix<\/a> was created by the Longwood Medical Area Research Data Management Working Group (LMA RDMWG)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Need help determining if an ELN is right for you or want to explore your other options for <a href=\"http:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/store\/backups\/\">data storage<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Want advice on options for storing and sharing your data once you\u2019ve completed your project, such as moving data from LabArchives to a <a href=\"http:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/share\/find-repository\/\">long-term repository<\/a>? Contact Data Management Services at <a href=\"mailto:data-management@mit.edu\">data-management@mit.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) enable researchers to organize and store experimental procedures, protocols, notes, and data, using their computer or mobile device. ELNs can offer several advantages over the traditional paper notebook in documenting research during the active phase of a project, including searchability within and across notebooks, secure storage with multiple redundancies, remote access to notebooks, and the ability to easily share notebooks among team members and collaborators. LabArchives There are many options when it comes to ELNs, each offering unique features for various research workflows \u2013 both within and outside a laboratory environment. MIT Information Systems and Technology [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-326","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/326\/revisions\/1134"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}