well i sort of thought to do the same thing once but was somehow reluctant about it. I have never used a lab log management software so cannot comment about it but for me the obvious advantages of using a hand written hard copy is that a) I can literally carry it anywhere, where as, if i had a software i will have to carry my laptop everywhere, and so I feel a book is a better option. b) Also, if it is a hand written book it is easy to draw sketches and arrange your  data or notes in a more customized way . I am too lazy to write long notes so i prefer using symbols and short notations and flowcharts to write things down in my lab log. However, the downside being others might find it difficult to read your notes. So yes! I think having a more standardized setup that anyone can read and understand would be ideal.  But would like to hear from people who have used such a software.

I have tried Lab book software from cambridgesoft.com. There is a long learning curve and the software is expensive for a single licence. If you are a subscriber-based purchase upon expiry you can access your notes but cannot add to them.

I have used MS Office OneNote 2007 as a simple way to e-document my data.

Good Luck

The University of Wisconsin just published a study of their recent pilot of electronic lab notebooks. It's at https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/files/ELN_pilot_report_UWMadison.pdf

Well, I suppose it depends on why you want to use an electronic lab book. I agree with Nikhil. A "analog" :-) book is much easier to use for small sketches and flow charts.

I do however also like electronic notbeooks because I can have access to them from everywhere (where you have a computer) since I'm not the notebook-carrying-person.

It also allows everyone (you want) to have access which is a great thing for sharing the results.

I personally use Mediawiki (the platform of wikipedia). It runs entirely through web browsers and is FREE. You have to be a little bit tech savvy (Webserver etc ect) in order to get started, though.

My lab switched from traditional lab notebooks to ELNs many years ago. At first, we used MS Word, but it was not flexible enough, and there was no easy way to share documents, make automatic backups, etc. I searched for a suitable alternative, and the ones that had the features we wanted were too expensive: about $100/year per person. With a lab that has >10 researchers, this was not sustainable. Eventually I created my own and it has worked perfectly for more than 4 years. Here are the details:

1) Free and open source software. It uses the drupal (http://drupal.org/) content management system, which relies on MySQL, PHP, and Apache.

2) Web-based. The notebooks can be access from anywhere with an internet connection.

3) Fine-grained user control. Users need to log in to use the site. The strength of passwords can be controlled. Users can share (or not share) specific pages or chapters with other users.

4) File uploads. Practically any file can be uploaded as an attachment. This is handy when one wants to keep copies of data files produced by various lab instruments.

5) Versions. Every time a user makes a change to a page, a new version can be created (if you want). This way the user pages are protected from accidental deletion, etc. Also, every page gets time- and date-stamped automatically.

To run the software, you essentially need a server. Most universities these days can set up web hosting on a virtual machine very easily. I currently use a Mac mini (bought for about $500) that is automatically backed up off site using Time Machine. To ease installation, I used a Bitnami stack (http://bitnami.org/).

The downside is that it takes some IT knowledge to set it up, and this is important because you want to keep the site secure. Our little server has been running 24/7 for years with no problems. But I had great IT advice from our department's IT expert.

Overall, our ELN has been ideal. We can check the notebook pages of any of our students at any time, and make annotations or comments as necessary. All data is backed up automatically, and I don't have to worry about anyone taking notebooks out of the lab.

I agree with all David has said. Drupal is very similar to mediawiki (but visually more appealing). Very good search features in case you ever want to find your results again :-).

I am going to look at Drupal. Thanks

Ronny, I originally looked at Mediawiki and thought that It certainly could be used as an ELN. It has all the key features like user control, file upload, etc., and it is easy to install and maintain. But once I got a look at the zillions of modules available for drupal, my mind was made up. I think drupal can be almost infinitely customized. My site probably runs a bit slower than it should, because of all the modules I've installed--I just could not pass up the rotating tag cloud, and the accordion-like menus. :-). I have a colleague here at UF who uses the wiki software that came pre-installed on his mac server as an ELN. It just depends on what features you require, and which you can live without.

David, what modules are in your opinion most useful to run drupal as a ELN? It may help to give Wayne a little bit of a head start. And yes, accordion like menus...sweet.

Ronny, yes that is a good idea. Wayne, here is a subset of the modules I use. I use drupal 6, but I think most, if not all, of these modules are available for drupal 7 and some of them have been incorporated into drupal core.

Access control, date/time, image, input filters, book (in the core-optional group), jquery, javascript timer, autologout, book search, diff, imagepicker, lightbox2, LoginToboggan, Menu breadcrumb, Password policy, node privacy by role, saveguard, CKEditor, jquery ui.

Hello,

Our lab is using http://www.elabftw.net.

It's a free and open source lab notebook plus a database where you can store anything that is in your fridge, nitrgen tank, etc…

You can try a live demo here : http://demo.elabftw.net

Regards,

~Nico

www.docollab.com is a free electronic lab notebook for save and manage scientific work, collaborate and track projects, and publish.

Highlights:

Store your experiments, protocols and files and use advanced editors for your scientific data.

Organize and manage projects, assign permissions and tasks and keep track of team's progress.

Quickly find what you are looking for with advances searching and sorting capabilities.

Collaborate in real-time with your colleagues. Share your content with individuals, groups, or make it public.

Maintain content's security and compliance with standards such as 21 CFR part 11, GLP and IP.

Also comply with FedRAMP and FISMA security standard.

FREE to use with no limits.

I'm using Evernote for 4 years and there is a paper about this program and its features:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23271786

Regards,

Santiago

You can try a new ELN in market ( completely free) , which is gaining popularity day by day among researchers. Though this product is still in beta state, but they are offering some basic  equipment scheduling and lab management features. Here is the link: 

http://www.elabmanager.com/

try labfolder, a great web-based lab notebook for documenting and sharing data. It's fully compliant with CFR 11 and the Good Scientific Practice code, and is great value for the service it provides. There are different price plans according to how many licenses you require, along with a free trial. 

https://www.labfolder.com/

Hi Wayne,

I’m COO of Labii Inc. (https://labii.com) where we have developed a cloud-based Electronic Lab Notebook for academic and industry researchers to revolutionize experimental design, experimental execution, data collection and analysis, allowing enhanced interconnectivity and collaboration.

The ELN takes a special template-based approach, allowing you to quickly create templates and then edit variables within those templates during your experimentation, optimizing your time dealing with research recording and GLP practices.

You can easily view all variable changes throughout a project with Vertical History and Version Control lets you restore any previous iteration of your work, so you always have dynamic control of your experiment methodology. 

Electronic signatures are created whenever any changes are made. You know who made what changes, where, and when. This also means EVERYTHING IS LOGGED.

Collaboration is made exceptionally easy and you can share documents, protocols, pictures and more with anyone connected to our platform, all while assigning permissions for each collaborator.

All of your information, results, protocols, and IP are secure (more secure than money in most financial institutions), Labii’s platform has an SSL rating of “A” (https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=labii.com&latest), allowing you peace of mind.

Easily keep track of multiple experiments, protocols, results and observations through our simple folder-based project manager.

Currently the ELN is free of charge, but soon, it won’t be. It has been developed for Mac!

https://labii.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOZUS7EPcf0

Dear all,

We recently published a paper in PLOSONE. We studied Evernote, OneNote, PerkinElmer E-Notebook and Elements and Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA Notebook. Here the link:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0160428

Regards,

Santiago

Wayne A. Warner, there is a great paper that was made recently to systematically gather feedback on ELN: Article Electronic Lab Notebooks: can they replace paper?