Office of Research & Innovation
Info For:

Introducing Electronic Research Notebooks at Drexel University

May 5, 2020
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

The Office of Research & Innovation is pleased to announce a subscription to an Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) service powered by LabArchives. LabArchives, is a cloud-based research notebook software solution available to Drexel researchers, instructors, and students. The Office of Research & Innovation is pleased to provide both the Professional and Classroom editions of the software, available to the community to start using immediately. LabArchives offers Drexel researchers free access to a modern and secure method of managing their research data and outcomes. It also offers Drexel instructors a robust collaboration and instruction platform.

Electronic Research Notebooks (ERN) at Drexel provides a secure online location to store, manage, and share your all data related to lab research and simplify the management of laboratory data and research and scholarly outcomes. ERN’s facilitate reproducibility, collaboration, compliance, and data management with features designed specifically for researchers and for the classroom. Drexel’s license offers the software at no cost to faculty, researchers, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students for both research activities and coursework.

A University-wide Webinar will be held on May 14, 2020 at 3pm EST, and May 21, 2020 at 3pm EST to showcase the product. You can RSVP for either date here.

Some of the key benefits of using an Electronic Research Notebook include: 

  • Accessibility – Access your work anywhere and anytime with an internet connection.
  • Collaboration – Share your findings securely in real-time within your workgroup and with external collaborators.
  • Security – Suitable for data classified as “sensitive” and below with full control over the access of invited users (internal or external to DU). Our agreement includes extensive security and legal protections for your data and IP.
  • Versioning and timestamps – Ability to record and revert to any previous versions protects your work from accidental data loss and provides full audit trails (record of username, date and time).
  • Searchability – Search for keywords, tags, users and entry types to find and access what you are looking for.
  • Compliance – ERN’s will greatly help researchers to conduct research in compliance with the Drexel Responsible Conduct of Research Policies.
  • Storage – The Drexel subscription covers unlimited storage. There is a maximum notebook size of 1 terabyte and a maximum individual file size of 4 gigabytes. 

You can access your Electronic Research Notebook by visiting the LabArchives website, selecting “Sign-in” and entering your Drexel email address (e.g. abc12@drexel.edu) or selecting “Drexel University” from the list of institutions. You will be prompted to sign in using your Drexel ID. For iOS and Android devices, mobile applications are available via the respective iOS and Android app stores. 

Additional information including guides, FAQs and upcoming training events can be found on the Electronic Research Notebook at Drexel University website under the Resources tab on the Office of Research & Innovation website or clicking here. 

Please contact ern@drexel.edu with any questions. You can also get help directly from from LabArchives here or via support@labarchives.com.

We encourage everyone to use this new tool as an opportunity to reinforce best practices in research study design, record keeping, productivity management and data analysis.

To create your account, visit our Electronic Research Notebook at Drexel University website.

Visit today and explore the possibilities.

Kairi D. WIlliams
Associate Vice Provost
Research Integrity Officer