Digital Lab Journals

A digital lab journal or electronic lab notebook (ELN) is a tool that in its most basic form replicates an interface much like a page in a paper lab notebook.

Compared to handwritten, analogue lab notebooks, ELNs offer several advantages:

Easier sharing of lab journal entries with collaborators.
Everything is kept in the digital sphere. As most analytical data nowadays is generated in digital formats, the use of a digital lab journal helps to work in a uniform environment instead of working in the digital as well as the analog world.
Most eLab journals also provide additional, sometimes field-specific, features that can help to improve the workflow.

The UG offers two products to researchers and research groups that are both hosted on UG servers with data is stored locally by the university.

eLabJournal

eLab is an is an all-in-one ELN suite by eLabNext that includes sample tracking and protocol management modules. It offers a lot of functionality for different research domains with a focus on life sciences. It's interface, which is accessible via web browser, can be extended and modified by additional add-ons to suite the researchers need. It also offers the integration of spreedsheet tools, e.g. MS Excel, and other office applications directly in the notebook.

For access to eLab you have to request an account from your institute.

Mbook

mbook

mbook is the ELN suite provided by Mestrelab Research who is known for the widely used NMR analysis tool Mnova. In contract to eLabJournal, mbook is more focused on the needs of bench chemists. As a result of this approach, its functionality is less extansive and adaptable than eLab, but at the same time, it needs less time for configuration and getting used to the interface.

For access to Mbook you have to request an account from your institute.

Last modified:

06 December 2022 11.01 a.m.