Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN)

Electronic lab notebooks (ELN) are computer programs designed to replace traditional paper laboratory notebooks.

Many softwares and web-applications exist to fit various needs, as illustrated by by the lists compiled by DLCM of the numerous ELNs and LIMS ("Laboratory Information Management Systems") on the market as of December 2017.

The University of Harvard has compiled and maintains on its website a useful comparative table of of the functionalities of several ELNs. 

 The DLCM team has also produced practical guidelines for introducing ELN and LIMS in an academic research laboratory.

At the UNIversity of Geneva

At UNIGE, some labs in life sciences are now using RSpace.

In autumn 2020, the Faculty of Medicine launched the SmartLab project which aims to deploy an electronic tool for monitoring research activities (ELN/LIMS) in its laboratories. Following a process of evaluation and tests carried out in a pilot project, eLAB JOURNAL was selected and will be gradually deployed from 2021 onwards in the laboratories that request it.

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