Historically, keeping a paper lab notebook to record experimental work has been a tradition in many disciplines. Paper notebooks are good for writing down procedures, observations, conclusions and for drawing flow charts and diagrams by hand. However, to accommodate the modern influx of digital data, researchers have taped instrumentation and computer printouts onto the pages of their notebooks, or cross-referenced larger data sets by recording file names and locations in the notebook.

An ELN (electronic lab notebook) is a software tool that in its most basic form replicates an interface much like a page in a paper lab notebook. ELNs have been widely used in private sector labs for many years, but only recently have major higher education institutions started to offer this service to their researchers. In online notebooks you can enter protocols, observations, notes, and other data using your computer or mobile device.

While paper lab notebooks have a long history in maintaining the research record, they are not without shortfalls in their functionality. A few examples that ELNs improve upon:

• Searchability
• Reducing effort integrating electronic data into the notebook
• Better compliance with records keeping
• Sharing with collaborators
• Portability
• Better data management
• Versioning and built-in IP protection measures
• Accessibility

While ELNs offer many benefits over a traditional paper notebook, the migration to an all-digital cloud service introduces new risks that PIs must consider and plan for before adoption. Take a look at our Transitioning to an ELN page for more information.

Beginning July 1, 2025, UVA will require that all NIH funded projects must use LabArchives.  All NIH federally funded research data related to published work at UVA must either be stored on the LabArchives platform or include a reference to its location if stored elsewhere. If you are unsure of your lab’s status, please contact the Office of the Vice President of Research.

For more information on compliance requirements at UVA, please visit our Compliance page. While not required if you are not NIH funded, all UVA investigators with federal funding are strongly encouraged to use LabArchives to store or point to a location where your research data is stored.

LabArchives supports compliance with the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. By utilizing the features within LabArchives, researchers will be able to (1) plan and budget for data management and sharing, (2) create a Data Management & Sharing (DMS) plan, and (3) implement a DMS plan. For more information about how LabArchives supports the key aspects of this requirement, please visit the Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy overview on the LabArchives site.

No. At this time, clinical trials are exempt from the requirement. You are welcome to use it, but it is not required.

Clinical Trials are defined as "a research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes" (per the NIH definition of a clinical trial).

While LabArchives is HIPAA compliant, Protected Health Information (PHI) or other highly sensitive data cannot be entered or stored in LabArchives at this time. Protected Health Information is defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as:

Individually identifiable health information, including demographic data, that relates to:

• the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
• the provision of health care to the individual, or
• the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual

Examples of PHI include a patient’s name, date of birth, date of visit for treatment, age, address, and any other information that could directly or indirectly lead to identification. De-identified data and information means that all 18 HIPAA identifiers have been removed from the data and documentation. Fully de-identified data and information may be stored in LabArchives.

Please follow the guidelines outlined in the "Protection of Highly Sensitive Data Standard" to ensure compliance with UVA policies and procedures regarding the storage of highly sensitive data.

Research data is owned by the University of Virginia. The classification of UVA data is the basis for determining appropriate environments for the data. As a reminder, highly sensitive data (per the UVA standard) should not be stored in a LabArchives notebook. Please contact [email protected] for specific guidance on electronic file and workspaces explicitly designated for storage of highly sensitive data at the University.

Further security and privacy information can be found by reviewing the following resources:

Protected Health Information (HIPAA) Regulations and Research at UVA

Protection of Highly Sensitive Data Standard at UVA

Protection of Highly Sensitive Data Procedures

Data Protection of University Information

Ownership, Retention, Safeguarding, Management, and Transfer of Research Records

UVA Office of Compliance

University of Virginia Policy Office

University Records & Information Management Office

UVA School of Medicine Policies and Guidelines

LabArchives Research Data Integrity & Security Center

LabArchives Trust, Security & Compliance

LabArchives ELN was designed to maintain the security of research data while providing a means to safely share data following institution and funder requirements. They are actively working to create and evolve solutions that meet the NIH guidelines.

LabArchives features to support data sharing requirements:

Data Management Plan

• Create and store a DMP securely in the notebook
• Upload external files with links
• Additional DMP solutions are being developed by LabArchives

Persistent Digital Identifiers

• Generate a DOI for shared data
• Utilize ORCID ID for researchers
• Add DMP IDs to notebooks via our API

Data Sharing Options

• Share directly from LabArchives
• Approve public shares to control IP
• Create DOIs in the sharing process 
• Integration with FigShare and other data repositories

ELNs support FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), which are recognized by the research community, including the National Institutes of Health. Further information can be found by reviewing the following resources:

• NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Overview
• Updated Guidance for the Requirement for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research
• Use of ELNs at the NIH

If you have NIH funded research at UVA, you will need to create a LabArchives account. If you are currently using a different platform, then you will have to create a page in LabArchives that references the location where your data is stored or migrate it to the LabArchives platform. 

Please note that HIPAA Protected Health Information (PHI) data, FERPA data or other highly restricted, sensitive data (e.g., passwords, credit card numbers, etc.) cannot be stored in any ELN affiliated with the UVA enterprise license for LabArchives. Please follow the guidelines outlined in the "Protection of Highly Sensitive Data Standard" to ensure compliance with UVA policies and procedures regarding the storage of highly sensitive data.

LabArchives has excellent customer service and can help you with the process of migrating your data from another ELN. Recommendations from LabArchives on how to migrate or import data can be found here. Please email [email protected] for support on how to transfer your data.

While not required if you are not NIH funded, all UVA investigators with federal funding are strongly encouraged to use LabArchives to store or point to a location where your research data is stored. For more information on compliance requirements at UVA, please visit our Compliance page.

Ownership of any new notebook will be assigned to the Principal Investigator (PI) of the lab/project or a faculty member, per UVA policy. All other accounts will be set up with 'user' attributes.

Notebook owners are able to designate an administer to help with the management of user roles and the creation of new notebooks. To learn more about assigning an administrator, please follow the directions found on our "How to Get Started" page. 

The following roles have full access to all notebooks within an account:

• Owner - can edit, clone, and delete the entire notebook. An Owner can control who has access to the data. There can only be one designated person for this role. Please note that only faculty members and PIs can be notebook owners using the UVA enterprise-wide license. 
• Account Administrator - Has full access to all notebooks created within the owner's account. Can access Account Manager or Notebook Settings to add other users, but with limited controls vs. Owners. Cannot delete or clone a notebook. Each Administrator occupies 1 seat. 
• Notebook Administrator - Can be added to individual notebooks. Can access Notebook Settings to add other users, but with limited controls vs. Owners. Cannot delete or clone a notebook. Each Administrator occupies 1 seat. 
• User - Can be added to individual notebooks. Can be given edit or view only rights. A User cannot share notebook contents. Cannot delete or clone a notebook. Each User occupies 1 seat. 
• Guest - Can be added to individual notebooks. Can be given edit rights for 60 days. After 60 days, the Guest access will become read only. There is no limit on the number of Guests.

For information about user roles and settings, please visit the LabArchives' website.  

Yes. At UVA, each notebook capacity is 1 TB (approximately 30,000 entries per notebook). To stay within these storage limits, LabArchives recommends that notebook owners to create multiple notebooks to organize their data.

Please note that you can create an unlimited number of notebooks in LabArchives.

Additional information about LabArchives, how-to guides, and other support resources can be found in the UVA | LabArchives Resources site-wide notebook. Before accessing the site-wide notebook, users will need to sign-in to their approved account using their Netbadge credentials.