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LabArchives

LabArchives is a secure, cloud-based platform for creating and collaborating within digital lab notebooks. Digital lab notebooks provide for easier and centralized storage, organization and sharing of scientific research and data. Please note, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and other protected, restricted and private data or information is prohibited from being stored or transferred using any tool within GW's LabArchive suite.

Digital lab notebook platforms like LabArchives are designed to help scholars from a variety of disciplines record and document research data, processes, and procedures and manage research data in a way that increases reproducibility, efficiency, collaboration, searchability, and security.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) has secured an enterprise license of LabArchives that allows all GW researchers (faculty and students) to utilize LabArchives at no cost to their projects. GW’s license allows:

  • unlimited notebook creation, with a per file size limit of 16 GB and cumulative individual notebook limit of 1 TB and/or 30,000 entries;
  • the ability to collaborate within a shared notebook or notebooks, which are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection;
  • flexibility and easily customizable notebooks to support different research workflows; and
  • integration with tools GW labs are already using to receive files and data, e.g. Box. 

LabArchives Modules

GW has licensed two tools within LabArchives for the scholarly community:

  • Digital Lab Notebook
    • The lab notebook tool provides a digital notebook and workspace for better data management of non-PII/restricted data, connectivity, and collaboration.
  • Inventory
    • The inventory tool streamlines the organization, usage, tracking, and ordering of inventory items.

Additionally, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) has funded the LabArchives Scheduler tool. This tool is available university-wide, however researchers outside of SMHS who choose to use it may be asked to contribute to its cost.

  • Scheduler
    • The scheduler tool is an easy-to-use calendar and scheduling software for the management and scheduling of laboratory equipment and resources.

The three tools can be used independently or together for increased productivity and streamlined research tracking.

Benefits of LabArchives

LabArchives benefits include:

 

 

  • Consistent data availability
  • Fully searchable
  • Defend research audit
  • Easy to use
  • Intuitive folder structure and simple text entry
  • Customizable templates and widgets
  • Enables scientific reproducibility
  • Enhanced data management
  • Improved data quality
  • Increased productivity
 

 

  • Prevent data loss
  • Promotes sharing & collaboration
  • Protect IP
  • Standardize & streamline workflow and research processes
  • Store any file type
  • Document any workflow process
  • Supports data submission for publishing
  • Match level of user privileges project roles
  • Full version history and ability to revert to previous versions

Setup an account

To claim a LabArchives account on GW’s institutional license:

  • Go to https://mynotebook.labarchives.com/login
  • Pull down the “Sign in through your institution” menu and choose “George Washington University”
  • You will be directed to a page to either link an existing LabArchives account to the GW license or to create a new account.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: If you create a new account, use your GW email address and remember which email address you used (i.e., @gwu.edu or @email.gwu.edu). Your data and access will be linked to that specific email address and cannot be transferred.
  • Once you have logged in, your account will be linked to the GW license and you will automatically be routed to single sign on in the future.
  • VPN is not required for LabArchives

Support

LabArchives Resources

Once you have created a LabArchives account, your first notebook will automatically be created for you. LabArchives provides several online resources to help you learn how to use the notebook and create new ones. These resources include:

These resources can also be accessed from within LabArchives by clicking the Info/Help drop-down button in the top right of your LabArchives toolbar.

GW Resources

To schedule instructor-led training or ask questions about LabArchives, email [email protected].

Data Management Resources