eLab Notebooks

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) facilitate day-to-day data management for end users by providing a tool for (automatic) data collection and registration of all processes, including diverse metadata. ELNs often integrate with laboratory information management system (LIMS), which assists with the organization of goods, samples, protocols, etc.. There are several open-source and commercial ELNs. I have selected five open-source ELNs, which were developed within the MSE domain or were adapted for MSE scientists.

Free, open source. Flagship in keeping data management as simple as possible. User-friendly graphical interface. Hierarchic dataset aggregation and access control. KaDi ecosystem enables extensive automatisation. Workflow-defined data management with an option to perform ML/AI-assisted data-driven research. KaDi4Mat is developed by material scientists but can be considered as a generic ELN.

KaDi4Mat

User-friendly: ★★★★★
Fair Data: ★★★★
Funcionalities: ★★★

Free, open source generic ELN. Community-driven development. Highly customizable, interactive and with a broad selection of language mutations. Simple, graphical navigation throughout the datasets. With integrated, seriously simplified LIMS. Enables user-defined templates for experiments/workflows. Drawings and chemical structures/reactions. Booking instruments. Timestamping.

eLab FTW

User-friendly: ★★★★
Fair Data: ★★★
Funcionalities: ★★★★★

Free, open source, complex ELN with a broad selection of functionalities. Well established in biomedicine community (since 2002). Highly linked to the integrated LIMS system and a repository (preferentially local, institutional). Native access to big data. Project-based aggregation of datasets and access control. Direct publishing of datasets in Zenodo repository. It has been adapted for the MSE domain (e.g., in Frauenhofer IWS, Germany)

openBIS

User-friendly: ★
Fair Data: ★★★★★
Funcionalities: ★★★★

Free, open source, web-based software for RDM in the MSE domain. Schema-oriented. Complex, user-defined schemas make data FAIR. Project-based aggregation of data and access control. Data are published via NOMAD repository. Linked to Jupiter notebooks for direct analysis of data. Integrated vocabulary. Excellent handling of the units of measure. NOMAD Oasis – Local installation of the ELN. repository. It has been adapted for the MSE domain (e.g., in Frauenhofer IWS, Germany).

NOMAD Oasis

User-friendly: ★★
Fair Data: ★★★★★
Funcionalities: ★★

Free, open source, web-based ELN for chemists. Less user-oriented than KaDi or eLabFTW. Chemical reactions are part of the description, including schematic drawings (Ketcher). Integrated LIMS. Graphical workflows. Project aggregation. Sample-oriented apoproach. Automatic acquisition of data and metadata. Integrated collaborative data transfer tool. Literature assignments. Direct publishing in RADAR repository. Generic ELN version – LabIMotion (under construction).

Chemotion

User-friendly: ★★★
Fair Data: ★★★★
Funcionalities: ★★★