Library Guides: Electronic Research Notebooks: Types of ERNs

Comprehensive ERN Evaluation Guide

The Harvard Biomedical Data Management program recently updated their comprehensive guide to many of the ERNs available to researchers. The guide includes a page for each individual ERN as well as a comparison grid so you can weigh the features most important to your work.

Field-specific ERNs

BIOVIA
BIOVIA Notebook is an ERN platform providing intellectual property protection and collaboration on-premises or cloud.
Chemical and Biological Information Systems (CBIS) - ChemInnovation
Web-based applications for managing chemical and biological information throughout the research lifecycle, including an e-notebook.
Chemotion ELN
Open-source ELN with a complementary chemistry data repository, Chemotion Repository.
LABTrack
LABTrack offers a data management software designed for scientists and engineers requiring only a web browser to access.
Quattro Research LJ
quattro/LJ is an electronic notebook designed for multiple scientific disciplines within research and development.
Signals Notebook
Cloud-based electronic notebook with ChemDraw and SpotFire integration. The College of Chemistry pays for a site license for ChemDraw and Signals Notebook, available to faculty, students, and staff in the College.

Subscription/Freemium based ERNs

RSpace
Rspace fits scientific workflows, works with tools you already use, and connects documents.
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Free accounts for individuals and groups.
LabFolder
Labfolder is an electronic research notebook that enables researchers to record findings and create, find, share, discuss & validate research data as a team.
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Free for groups of 3 or less scientists.
LabArchives
LabArchives is a cloud-based Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) enabling researchers to easily create, store, share and manage their research data. LabArchives also provides a flexible, extensible platform that can be easily customized to match your lab's workflow
Docollab
Labguru
Labguru ERN is a secure, web-based platform to record and manage your laboratory data in one place. Scientists can design experiments and workflows with the ERN, capture structured and unstructured data, manage projects, and share their work from one user interface.

Free ERN Options

sciNote
Benchling
Benchling is a free research platform with tools for note-taking, molecular biology, and sample tracking.
Evernote
Another notebook style application being used as a generic ERN platform.
Jupyter
Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for computing across dozens of programming languages.

Tips about Choosing ERN

Start with a free ERN before purchasing
Ask one person to pilot ERN
Open source notebooks are easier to customize
It may take a few pilots to find the right platform
Ask the Chemistry Librarian for help!

Evaluating ERNs

When determining what type of ERN platform to adopt it can be helpful to think about the following criteria:
User Experience

Interface
Support

Interoperability

Multi-device compatibility
Browsers, operating systems & file types
Real-time collaboration
Instrument integration and open APIs

Pricing

Licensing Model
Free Version (Yes or No)

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