Electronic Research Notebooks
Cedars-Sinai offers the Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) services of LabArchives, a secure, cloud-based solution for research data management.
Open to all Cedars-Sinai basic, translational and clinical researchers at any level, ERN services are provided at no cost to you and can help you organize, store, export and share your research data.
Users will also have access to Inventory, a LabArchives inventory management module to organize storage and track usage of lab items, and to help organize requests for ordering.
Getting Started
Go to: mynotebook.labarchives.com
- Enter your primary Cedars-Sinai email address (e.g. jane.doe@cshs.org) or select 'Cedars-Sinai Medical Center' from the drop-down menu.
- On the linked page, enter your standard Cedars-Sinai credentials.
- Logging into LabArchives off-site requires Okta Multi-Factor Authentication via the 'Okta Verify' app on your mobile device.
Getting Started
Secure, cloud-based searchable data, accessible anywhere and platform-independent. Long-term storage that replaces paper notebooks that take up space and are susceptible to loss. Ability to easily share data and protocols with others, within or outside Cedars-Sinai. Trains students and postdocs on modern electronic record-keeping. IP protection and research integrity data trail (all entries are time-stamped, nothing ever deleted).
No. ERNs are tools for documenting any research process and may be useful for keeping track of workflows and data from clinical trials or other non-wetlab based research.
With the generous support of Cedars-Sinai Academic Affairs, there is no cost to individual investigators and no limit on the number of notebooks you can create.
Starting in mid-2019, Cedars-Sinai entered a 3-year contract with LabArchives. While we cannot predict the future of any software, Cedars-Sinai is committed to maintaining ERNs in some form. If the LabArchives contract is terminated for any reason, LabArchives agrees to maintain all of the Cedars-Sinai data in a 'read-only' format and allow users to export the data for a period of 3 years from the date the subscription terminates. The data remains the sole and exclusive property of Cedars-Sinai.
See the definitions here: User Roles. Note, when lab members create notebooks, it is Cedars-Sinai policy that ownership of the notebook be transferred to the lab PI (the person who created the notebook will then be converted to administrator).
Notebook Entries
Any electronic data can be uploaded to your notebook (Word documents, Excel sheets, PDFs, text files, image files, etc.). Apps allow specific integration with Microsoft Office, GraphPad Prism, and other Software Integration Partners.
Yes. Select 'PubMed References' on the Add Entry toolbar (under 'More' if not visible). Enter a search term and click 'Search'. The matching references will appear. Check the box for each article you would like to reference and click 'Add to entry'.
LabArchives integrates with BOX so you can drag and drop files >250MB to a notebook, and these will be stored in a common Cedars-Sinai BOX account (the file icon will indicate a BOX file). Note that you can only access your files uploaded to this BOX account via the LabArchives interface. The maximum size for a single file is currently 15 GB. However, you can also insert a link to another server outside of a notebook for larger files. The maximum single notebook size is 1 TB. However, you may create as many notebooks as you wish.
Some groups will add data to the notebook periodically (weekly, daily, etc.) rather than recording data in the lab notebook immediately. You might also setup Folder Monitor to automatically upload data from a local drive (Folder Monitor Mac) (Folder Monitor Windows). Alternatively, you can email the data files to inbox@labarchives.com from the Cedars-Sinai email account associated with your LabArchives account (Inbox). Data sent to the inbox will appear in your LabArchives inbox with the body of the email text appearing as a description. When ready, simply move the data to the appropriate notebook page.
Yes, but only 1-way and not from a shared drive or directly from BOX (although you can manually upload from these sources). The downloaded application Folder Monitor will allow you to automatically upload data to your lab notebook from a drive on your computer or piece of equipment in the lab. See Folder Monitor for Mac (Folder Monitor Mac) or Windows (Folder Monitor Windows).
Absolutely! Many groups create templates for repetitive techniques to standardize the associated documentation. You can design a template with rich text entries, attachments or you can create your own custom Widget (Widgets). Widgets use HTML forms and Javascript code and can make standardized forms that a researcher fills out when performing a particular task (calculator tools, freezer inventories, plasmid databases, etc.). Also see Widget Manager.
Portability
Yes, you can export either the entire notebook or any portion as a PDF. You can also choose to create an offline notebook, which creates a zip drive with HTML files for the pages in the ERN and includes the attachments. Remember, all current institutional policies that apply to paper notebooks and data generated at Cedars-Sinai apply to ERNs. The data remains the sole and exclusive property of Cedars-Sinai.
Security and Access
As the owner of the lab notebook, you have full administrative control, including what is shared and with whom and what they are allowed to view and edit within your notebook. You can maintain both private and collaborative information within your LabArchives account. Any current institutional policies that apply to paper notebooks and data generated at Cedars-Sinai apply to ERNs.
Yes. Cedars-Sinai has a BAA in place with LabArchives. LabArchives provides the framework to support best practices research at Cedars-Sinai in accordance with the stated objectives of the Office of Research and IT in addition to the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other government-funding agencies' mandates requiring data management plans with clear post-publication data-sharing plans. LabArchives provides the framework for compliance with these mandates as well as 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, FERPA, GDPR, GLP and NIST 800-171. LabArchives has also passed a Cedars-Sinai security review and is integrated with OKTA and our active directory.
To access your data in LabArchives, you will need a constant internet connection. LabArchives guarantees that you will be able to access your data 99.5% of the time, and its historical record is quite good. But should you not be able to access your notebook for a short period, written or computer-entered records would need to be subsequently uploaded (the former can be as simple as a cellphone picture of notes). If a grant or paper deadline absolutely requires access to a notebook, it would be prudent to download a PDF or other form of the relevant data for short-term local storage.
Yes. LabArchives functions within the browser on most mobile devices and there are also Android and iOS apps.
Collaboration
ERNs make collaboration easy, with the ability to set permissions at the level of notebook, page or individual entry; share notebooks, pages or individual entries with your Cedars-Sinai lab members, colleagues or collaborators outside Cedars-Sinai; and the ability to create a protocol compendium used by everyone in the lab or even shared outside the lab.
Inventory
No. Like ERNs, Inventory is provided free to all Cedars-Sinai personnel.
LabArchives Inventory is accessible from your LabArchives ERN account by clicking on the test-tube icon in the upper right-hand corner of the notebook or by logging in directly at inventory.labarchives.com. If you already have a LabArchives ERN account, you do not need to create a new account and will have the ability to switch between the two.
Yes. There is an import template to upload your inventory information. It is organized by Inventory Type which can be customized in the Lab Management section of Inventory.
Yes. Inventory items and orders can be searched and filtered as well as exported for reporting and ordering purposes.
Yes.
- Inventory Types: There are nine default types to categorize inventory items, but you can modify to match the types used in your lab. You can customize the details fields for the defaults, delete the ones that aren’t relevant (with the exception of the General and Chemical type), and create your own new types.
- Storage: You can create a multilevel representation of your storage locations so that you can view items from multiple perspectives. You can even set up a Freezer Box and then populate the Freezer Box in Inventory to match up with its current physical inventory.
It is Cedars-Sinai policy that PIs are owners of all ERNs created by lab personnel. Similarly, PIs should be assigned a lab manager role in Inventory. However, there is no limit on the number of people who can have the lab manager role. Typically, a lab manager or similar position, as well as the PI, will be assigned a lab manager role, while others may be assigned lab member roles, but that is up to you.
No. Inventory allows for approval (if desired) and organization of order requests from the lab. These requests can then be exported as a “shopping list” to enter into the PeopleSoft ordering system.
The Inventory program has been designed to be mobile friendly. From your mobile device’s browser, you can scan QR codes you’ve generated from the program. Simply select the camera icon near the search window on the Inventory menu to scan.
Currently, the DYMO LabelWriter is supported along with cryo-label (DTCR 9138-6000), which includes a circular QR code and separate label. Expanding the list of supported printers and allowing for custom formatting is being planned for a future release.
Access and Support
Already have an account with Cedars-Sinai LabArchives? Log in below to begin.