Yes, our lab is paperless. Quite a few years ago we decided to move to an electronic lab notebook system for several reasons: 1) Electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) can be backed up easily as compared to traditional notebooks. 2) It is easy to share data and protocols using ELNs, even if your collaborators are in a different country. 3) Most of the data collected these days is electronic. The irony of taking a digital photo of a gel and printing it out to tape it into a traditional notebook was not lost on us. 4) et cetera.

I eventually set up a web-based ELN for our lab using the Drupal content management system (https://drupal.org). There are many advantages to using a web-based ELN as compared to a program that runs on a specific computer.

Bottom line: Yes, we use iPads, but mostly laptops as they are more versatile. The best apps for the iPad, are things like Lab timer, Counter, and a calculator. At this point, if I had to choose between an iPad or iPad mini, I would choose the iPad because of the larger screen. However, I would still choose a laptop or a netbook over an iPad. Nonetheless, iPads are fully functional with an ELN system. If you do not want to set up your own ELN, there are several out there that are not too expensive like Labguru (http://www.labguru.com), which has an iPad app.

The only use I have for tablets in the lab is as a portable computer to have around the microscope for when I have to run long experiments with short (3 or 4 minutes) time lapses. I prefer reading my papers on the computer, and tend to keep my record-keeping in hard-copy format.

Interesting topic!

I also agree printing all sequencing results, picture of gel and so on is not that practical. Moreover, most of the routine protocol are also printed from the same template which is poorly modified in case of small mistake in the protocol, or notification of abnormal behavior.

Time lost to reproduce results in lab book could be used to directly format results for progress report for example.

Moreover, lab work also require often last minute verification in publication, database or technical review from material used and smartphone and tablet could be of great help!

Hi. For lab records I use traditional approaches, however, for reading papers I love the iPad and especially the GoodReader (GR) application. This one will allow you to highlight, underline, make comments, etc. I don't print papers anymore and read them at my convenience even in dark places since the iPad is back-lit, I can magnify difficult to see pictures, I don't suffer guessing the original colors of a color picture printed in a B&W laser printer, and I don't chase lost papers at home or in the lab since all PDFs are kept in a single place. - Uploading PDFs in iPad is a bit cumbersome since you have to go through iTunes which is not a problem for occasional batch uploads however, for routine paper-by-paper uploads is better to access the article through the internet or email it to yourself and once displayed as a PDF, open it with GR. It can also be opened with the default application iBooks but this one lacks GR's flexibility to handle Word or Excel documents.

Thanks to you all for your helpful answers!

I have tried using my tablet as regular lab notebook (Evernote is really good in this aspect) but I just found it easier to go old school with pencil scribblings in a bound notebook. But I find my tablet indispensable for following long protocols (its really wasteful to print them), performing simple calculations like parasitemia, reagent prep, dilutions etc, (I maintain a big excel sheet with programmed cells in Google Drive) and reagent ordering. I use GoogleDrive and QuickOffice to the fullest extent for everything from protocols to result tables that I can easily share with fellow members. For inventory and ordering, we use quartzy website and I usually access it through the tablet. I use Nexus 7 which has same dimensions as an Ipadmini and have found it to be more than sufficient.

Some useful apps-

1) Googledrive, Quickoffice for documentation, recordkeeping. Googledrive can be used for absolutely anything. The best app ever. My professor asks us to maintain a folder for each project shared with him. We also maintain records of samples, sequencing libraries, its position in the freezers etc. in it.

2) Scholarley (free with mendeley) or Papers - for maintaining biblio and reading papers.This way you need not worry about mailing pdfs, everything is in the cloud.

Hey Kenneth,

I use Microsoft OneNote for my electronic lab notebook. It has a pretty great setup for this idea, and works pretty well with touch screens allowing one to draw notes on blot/gel pictures ect. You can then use SkyDrive to have access to your OneNote notebooks at anytime and share things with others easily.

While I know it is a more pricey option I have a Lenovo Yoga, which is a hybrid laptop/tablet. It works really well since you get the computing power and capabilities of a laptop, while as being able to fold it back into a tablet for easier use around the lab, especial at the bench.

Hi,

I use iPad because of its large screen and viewing protocols and recording my results in Excel when working in the lab.

You might want to try out Vessel. It's a research management web app and mobile app that helps researchers track, organize, and share their data. It allows scientists to make observations, take pictures, and make any protocol changes on any mobile device. First 3 users are free per lab and any additional members will have a 60 day free trial.

For more info, check out:

https://app.vesselsci.com/

https://app.vesselsci.com/

Luka,

You might disclose that you are associate with SciNote and that your "Review" chooses that as the top choice.  Further, Splice-Bio is the blog of that company.

I freely disclose that I am the CEO of LabArchives, the world's leading ELN.  You might do the same.

Best,

Earl

Laboratory Notebooks: A Dinosaur Badly in Need of Replacement? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Laboratory_Notebooks_A_Dinosaur_Badly_in_Need_of_Replacement#582f9fac93553bf27d01b012 [accessed Nov 18, 2016].

Full disclosure - I am the CEO of LabArchives, LLC.  Our cloud-based (also available On Premises) is the leading Electronic Lab Notebook in the world with over 130,000 users.  We have Enterprise accounts and dozens of leading research institutions throughout the world.  

Please check our our web site and let us know if you have any questions.  www.labarchives.com

Best,

Earl

Dear Luka,

Thanks for your response. I noticed that your last name is the same as the CEO of Sci-Note.   Perhaps that is a coincidence.

I also noticed that the "Blog" into which you published our article is actually the blog for the company that makes Sci-Note, which is not disclosed anywhere.  

I'm sorry, but while you may stand by your opinion, which I don't question, I do find the approach a bit disingenuous.  Conflicts of interest, as well as perceived conflicts of interest, should always be disclosed, especially in science.  But perhaps you disagree with this.

Kenneth W Witwer, nowadays with the cloud you can run many apps directly on your tablet. I do like Google products and Asana for productivity. For my researcher, I built a software that helped me organized all my data in one place alongs with my experimental protocols and note. It is called Pillar Science, you can take a look at it here: http://bit.ly/2V1EHQE