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LabArchives - Electronic Research Notebook

LabArchives is an Electronic Research Notebook product provided for use of University of Missouri researchers to record, organize, search, and share their research data from a single platform.

LabArchives - Electronic Research Notebook - Researchers

LabArchives is discipline-agnostic and very flexible to your workflow. Typically the project lead or PI will create LabArchives notebooks and share them with other members of the team. Notebook structures are flexible, and once created can be used as templates for future projects.

Create a Notebook

When you first create your account, you are given a sample notebook called "My Notebook." You may start with this notebook, or create your own.

  • Create a new notebook by clicking "Notebooks" near the top left of the screen, and click the + icon to create a new notebook
  • Complete the page by giving your new notebook a name, selecting a folder layout
  • The 'i' icon next to "choose a folder layout" will describe what's in that folder layout template. Note that after you create the notebook, you can further edit, add, and reorganize folders at any time.
  • Also note that in this section, you can choose a folder layout from another of your notebooks...i.e. once you customize a layout that you like or is appropriate for your workflows, you can easily re-use it when creating additional new notebooks.
  • Click Create Notebook

Organize Your Notebook

Your new notebook can be organized and customized with folders and pages. Your notebook's folders and pages appear in the left panel of the page.

  • Click "+ New" to create a new folder or page, or similarly to entire Notebooks you can copy a page you have already designed
  • Right-clicking (Ctrl + Click on Mac) a folder or page name will display options to rename, copy, delete, convert to PDF, share and manage permissions for that item
  • Folders may contain subfolders
  • All objects can be moved/organized by dragging and dropping

Add Data

Now that you have a notebook with at least one page, you can begin adding data to your notebook by clicking on a page to open it, and clicking '+ New' from the bar near the top right. This presents you with several options for adding data of different types.

Selected entry types and descriptions

Entry type Description Additional notes
Rich text May contain text, with formatting such as color, sizing, and other basic word processing functions. May also add tables, embed images, videos, and links. Very commonly-used entry type. Can use for documentation, annotation, notes, etc.
Attachment Any file (up to 4GB) can be uploaded into your LabArchive notebook. Known file formats will display a thumbnail, Office documents can be edited with Office Online, and images can be annotated. Maximum attachment size is 4GB.
Widgets Widgets can be used insert tools, calculators, and other interactive elements directly into your notebook. Must be selected from the list of available widgets, which skews toward scientific tools ('molarity calculator,' 'chemical sketcher,' but does include Google calendar and Google Docs widgets.
Import CSV File If you have some data already, or a spreadsheet/CSV file designed for collecting data into certain fields, you can import the CSV file directly into your notebook, where it will not only display, but also be editable and exportable. The .csv can be imported in a 'freezerbox' or 'database' widget style. 'Database' is most similar to many typical .csv arrangements, displayed in a table and rows can be edited. 'Freezerbox' displays row data in a grid of cells (see here for more information). You can also create (rather than import) a freezer box from the Widget menu.

Review Versions

You can view previous saved versions/revisions of notebooks, both to audit who made changes and when, as well as to restore deleted content and/or revert to a previous version.