This ELN checklist gives you feel for the basics, common add-ons, and the less obvious things that are actually critical in determining whether the ELN is right for you. If you are investigating ELNs for a department, school, college, faculty or an entire institution an additional set of factors need to be considered; these are set out at the bottom of the list. Download this ELN Checklist for your convenience.
Features and Tools
Basic Features
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Creating and sharing documents |
Re-usable templates and document structures |
Image annotation |
Chemical structure drawing and editing |
Internal messaging and communications |
Versioning and revision history |
Audit history and analysis |
Add-ons
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Signing and witnessing documents |
Sketching or drawing tools |
Sample management |
Practical Considerations
Cost
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License fee |
Fee to create or manage groups |
Data storage charges |
Ease of set-up
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Getting started guide/video help |
Simple creation of groups and users |
Customizable, sharable templates |
File management
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File and document import and export |
File retention and management |
Integration with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and One Drive |
Collaboration within the group or lab
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Intuitive document sharing |
Collaborative document editing |
Multi-user commenting |
Collaboration between groups or labs
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PIs can establish collaboration groups with other labs |
Support for multiple group collaboration |
Lab Management
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PIs can easily check on the work of each lab member |
PIs can delegate administration to another group member |
Easy to add and remove members from the group/lab |
Inventory Management
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Configurable for your field of research and workflows |
Support for complex container types and hierarchies |
Integration with the ELN, data repositories, and unique identifiers |
Ease of navigation and search functionality |
Usable on mobile devices |
Visual and clear presentation of complex information |
Ease of Export
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Supported formats include PDF, HTML, XML |
Users with export rights include Users, PIs and Administrators |
Configurable export options: Multiple documents/types, Entire lab’s output, Entire ELN’s content |
Support
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Modern user communication platform (e.g. Intercom, Salesforce) |
Quality, timely responses to user queries |
Future-proofing
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Convenient export options and formats |
Compliant with funder requirements on data sharing and preservation |
Integration of institutional research data management standards and infrastructure |
Security
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User data encryption: at rest or over a network |
Logging of data posts and login sessions |
Precautions taken against common attacks such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, session hijacking, password-guessing and role escalation |
Independent security accreditation |
Institutional deployments
Suitability
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Does a significant body of researchers at your institution need an ELN? |
Does the ELN possess sufficiently wide capabilities to meet the needs of the majority of these researchers? |
Has the ELN been specifically designed for use and deployment in academic research institutions? |
Deployment
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Single sign-on (SSO) integration |
Support for services like Shibboleth or LDAP |
Both cloud and on-premises options: How easy is it to move the ELN if your server environment changes? |
Administrative controls
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Robust system administration features |
Multiple, configurable levels of admin |
Intuitive dashboard for admins |
Usability
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User-friendly, intuitive interface |
Support for pre-existing user workflows? |
Straightforward in-app navigation |
Robust online training material |
IP Protection
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Automatic versioning of documents with access to all revisions |
Documents can be signed (locked for editing) and witnessed as complete |
Searchable audit trail of user actions |
Integration with file stores
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Support for linking to multiple file stores |
Configurable file store access interface |
Collaboration
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Support for collaboration within groups and/or labs |
Support for inter-group/lab collaboration |
Support for inter-departmental/school/institute collaboration |
Integration with RDM Infrastructure
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Data repository integration |
Data archiving capability |
Data synchronization: built in or via separate app? |
Security
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System administrators have the capability to promptly detect security breaches |
Straightforward implementation of backup and disaster-recovery strategies |