eLabNext is a Division of Eppendorf. Their ELN platform consists of three integrated modules eLabJournal, eLabInventory, and eLabProtocols, along with a Mobile app and optional apps and connectors.

• Offers an intuitive and flexible solution to documenting, organizing, searching, and archiving research data
• Useful add-ons and integrations
• Flexible structure for protocol generation
• Collaboration option
• Good inventory management
   

Learn more about eLabNext

• View this video, a high-level overview of eLabNext
• See a detailed description of the eLabNext product from the vendor’s website
   

Local resources and support

• DFCI – eLabJournal: Electronic Laboratory Notebook
• HMS Research Computing ELN Services Page

LabArchives is a secure and intuitive cloud-based electronic lab notebook application enabling researchers to easily create, store, share and manage their research data. LabArchives is mandatory for researchers at MGB institutions.

• A flexible, extensible platform that can be easily customized to match your lab's workflow
• Classroom edition for students and teachers, with special features for teaching lab safety, lab procedures, and techniques
• PubMed references entry editor
• Integration with GraphPad Prism
• Free version available with 25MB storage
   

Learn more about LabArchives

• View this video, a high-level overview of LabArchives
• See a more detailed description of LabArchives from the vendor’s website
   

Local resources and support

• Mass General Brigham – Electronic Laboratory Notebook
• Boston Children's Hospital (coming soon)

ResearchSpace (RSpace) has been developed in close consultation with researchers and IT and research data professionals at leading global research institutions.

• RSpace is a collaborative tool that enables researchers and their teams to work together in a way that is centralized, streamlined, and secure
• Integrates with several archives and repositories, including GitHub, figshare, Dataverse, ORCID, Mendeley, protocols.io and more
• Possible archive management, built-in metrics, and analytics
• Can connect to the eCAT sample tracking system
• Supports chemical structures
• Free to use with unlimited storage
   

Learn more about RSpace

• View this video, a high-level overview of RSpace
• See an overview of their ELN product from their website
   

Local resources and support

• Harvard University RSpace ELN Overview for Prospective Users

Microsoft OneNote: This general-purpose digital notebook is part of the MS Office suite.

• A note-taking program for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration
• It gathers users' notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries
• Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network
• Imports: Evernote XML
• Exports: OneNote binary format (More information about exporting OneNote data)
   

Microsoft OneNote is available to the Harvard Community. To get started:

• Office ProPlus is part of the Office 365 suite of services (including OneNote) offered to Harvard customers
• Get setup with Office 365 for Harvard

Open Science Framework: OSF is a free and open-source project management tool that supports researchers throughout their entire project lifecycle.

• Manage which parts of a project are public or private, making it easier to collaborate and share with the community or just your team
• Manage files, data, code, and protocols in one centralized location and easily build a custom organization for your project
• Built-in version control, granular privacy controls, integrations, and citable persistent identifiers streamline workflows
• OSF provides highly secure, redundant archiving services for confident preservation of research data
• OSF connects to many other products including Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Zotero, and more
   

Learn more about OSF on the Collaborative Tools & Software page.

Benchling: This is a free cloud-based ELN platform that also provides Molecular Biology tools.

• Benchling offers a modern approach to note-taking with an intuitive user interface, so scientists can focus on science
• High-end informatics platform for biologics research and development
• Very user-friendly and quick to set up
• Useful DNA tools (CRISPR guide and primer design)
• Templates for sequence mapping and sharing
• Free version available (academia only) with 10 GB of storage space

Confluence: A popular documentation and sharing platform that can be configured to manage workflows.

• A wiki is a website that allows users to create, edit, and publish content collaboratively through a web browser
• Individual wikis are referred to as "spaces."
• Each space can have one or more administrators, and access can be given to individuals, groups, all of Harvard, or to the public
• Within each space, pages serve as the primary way of creating and sharing information
• Each page has its own URL, page history, access restrictions, file attachments, and comments
• Pages can include text and multimedia files, comments, macros, and links, all of which can be created and edited collaboratively

Evernote: Another popular general-purpose note-taking app, allows you to organize many types of data, and sync those data to different devices.

• Create notes, which can be text, drawings, photographs, audio, or saved web content
• Notes are stored in notebooks and can be tagged, annotated, edited, searched, given attachments, and exported
• Imports and exports in Evernote XML
• It is free to use with monthly usage limits and offers paid plans for expanded or lifted limits
• Freemium for personal use, per-seat licensing for business