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.

Beginning July 1, 2025, UVA will require that all NIH funded projects must use LabArchives. If you are unsure of your lab’s status, please contact the Office of the Vice President of Research.

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. While it is likely that other federal sponsors are moving in this direction, LabArchives will not be required for data related to other federally funded awards at this time.

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 our FAQs page and the Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy overview on the LabArchives site.

If you have federally funded research at UVA, you MUST use LabArchives.  If you are currently using a different platform you will have to migrate it. LabArchives has excellent customer service and can help you with this process.

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 ELN offers 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.

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. 

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

A lab notebook establishes a permanent record detailing what was done during the course of a project.  Laboratory notebooks can also serve as a source for assigning credit to lab members, addressing concerns related to scientific misconduct or invention derivation, and establishing a researcher’s inventive contribution to a patentable technology.

Research Notes

Records must be sufficiently detailed and clear to allow “someone skilled in the art” to recreate the work and to conduct additional work without the direct assistance of the original researcher.  Document what was done, why it was done, who suggested it, who did it, when it was done, what the results were (positive or negative), what conclusions were drawn, and future plans.

All details of a project should be recorded, including raw data and final results of experiments, protocols and designs of experiments, calculations, details of equipment use and a key to any abbreviations used. Include data from recording instruments, drawings, photographs, charts, etc. Record all research and developmental efforts, including ideas generated during meetings, and the source of the ideas.  Record dates when an idea was conceived and when work on the idea was started and completed. Notebook entries should ideally be made on the same day as the event, or as soon thereafter as possible (and indicate when the actual work was done). Record plans for future experiments.

Be factual! Avoid any negative comments concerning the project or the results of an experiment and comments reflecting the nature, quality, or utility of the results of a research project. Document when, where, and to whom your research is presented. Researchers can share laboratory notebooks as long as each researcher fulfills their responsibility of signing, dating and obtaining witnesses for laboratory notebook pages with their research entries.

Electronic Data

If data are maintained electronically, consider that electronic records/notebooks must achieve the same objectives as hard copy laboratory notebooks (see above).  Electronic records must credibly document a researcher’s work in sufficient detail, including the date of creation, the content when created and the details related to any subsequent amendments, and the records must be reproducible in human readable form.  Most court cases don’t occur until many years after the electronic record creation, so record management considerations are critical, including issues such as file storage and software maintenance.

When developing a system for research records that includes (wholly or in part) electronic records, please consider the following criteria, as they affect the viability and credibility of research records:

• Permanency of records: archive in electronic or paper form?
• Amended records: can you tell what was changed, when, and by whom? Is it possible to access and read the old versions?
• Security: have the records been altered/compromised? Are they safe from disasters and protected against loss?
• Identity management: who created a record and made any changes? Can records be signed and witnessed?
• Are the file locations permanent? Could a linked file be changed? Will the link be reliable or could the link be broken?
• Where are data stored? Personal laptops or lab/department computers? If using a service, are data stored inside or outside the US? Cloud-based (where)?
• Would the use of the specific software affect ownership of the data?

Labs/researchers may be obligated to comply with data management requirements from institutions, funding agencies, sponsors, etc.

please see the resources area on our website and on LabArchives website- click on resources. 

Having a backup and archival plan for all your digital work, including your lab notebooks on the ELN platform, is always recommended. While the LabArchives service has a record of high availability, there are some scenarios in which you could lose access to your notebooks temporarily. Also, most researchers need to retain their notebooks for several years, so having a process for archiving notebooks that are completed is important. The strategies below will help you create a backup and archival plan that takes several scenarios into account:

• Routinely place a secondary copy of all files you attach to the ELN in another location such as a department or University server. You may find it helpful to use the same folder structure as in the ELN to avoid confusion.
• Export (PDF) or create offline copies (HTML) of notebooks on a regular basis. For notebooks that are being actively edited, establish a schedule of exporting that will keep pace with your changes.

When lab members leave, they can take an HTML and PDF copy of the notebook with them. They can also be given view-only Guest access to the notebook for as long as the PI wishes. Since the PI must be the owner of all notebooks in their lab, notebooks cannot disappear when a member leaves!

While LabArchives is HIPAA compliant, Protected Health Information (PHI) or other highly sensitive data may not 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.

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 it-security@virginia.edu 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