FAQ
What is an electronic lab notebook?
An ELN (electronic lab notebook) is a digital platform that enables researchers to document their lab work and research activities electronically. Unlike traditional paper notebooks, it provides an efficient and accurate platform for recording experiments and results.
Why should I use an electronic lab notebook?
Using an ELN facilitates the precise documentation of experiments. For example, it enables easy collaboration with colleagues, uniform laboratory documentation based on standardized templates and improved data security. This makes it an indispensable resource in modern scientific research.
Is my research work safe in eLab?
Yes, eLab offers data backup and recovery features to ensure that your valuable data is protected. In addition, the software is hosted on server systems of University of Münster, ensuring data protection and regular backups.
Can I share my lab notebook data with other researchers?
You can easily share your own data records in eLab with members of your own team. In addition, eLab offers various export options so that you can easily share your data and notes with other researchers and ELNs. Possible export formats include PDF, ZIP, CSV, JSON and the new ELN format.
What is an eLab team?
In eLab, the term "team" refers to a research group. Users can be members of several teams at the same time and can easily switch between team.
What is an eLab group?
In eLab, team administrators have the option of creating groups within their teams in order to structure the internal organization more precisely.
How can I apply for my own team?
As head of a scientific working group or organizational unit, you can have your own team in eLab. If you would like to do this, please complete the "Application for a new eLab team" and send it to us by e-mail.
If a team member leaves the university, what happens to his/her experiments in eLab?
In principle, no experiments are lost or deleted in eLab. However, depending on which read and write permissions a member has assigned for their experiments, it can happen that a team member's experiments are no longer visible to the rest of the team after he/her has left. To prevent this, we recommend configuring eLab at team level so that the team admins always have read and, if necessary, write access to all of the team's experiments. This ensures that the experiments of a team member can still be viewed if the person leaves the team or the university.
