Abstract
Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) are more accessible andreliable than their paper based alternatives and thus findwidespread adoption. While a large number of commercial productsis available, small- to mid-sized laboratories can often notafford the costs or are concerned about the longevity of theproviders. Turning towards free alternatives, however, raisesquestions about data protection, which are not sufficientlyaddressed by available solutions. To serve as legal documents,ELNs must prevent scientific fraud through technical means suchas digital signatures. It would also be advantageous if an ELNwas integrated with a laboratory information management system toallow for a comprehensive documentation of experimental workincluding the location of samples that were used in a particularexperiment. Here, we present OpenLabNotes, which addsstate-of-the-art ELN capabilities to OpenLabFramework, a powerfuland flexible laboratory information management system. Incontrast to comparable solutions, it allows to protect theintellectual property of its users by offering data protectionwith digital signatures. OpenLabNotes effectively closes the gapbetween research documentation and sample management, thus makingOpen-LabFramework more attractive for laboratories that seek toincrease productivity through electronic data management.
