HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Call 1-800-TRY-CHOP
LabArchives FAQs
General
CHOP has selected the LabArchives service as its Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) of choice. LabArchives is a Cloud-based tool for collecting, organizing, and sharing laboratory and research information. The service is provided at no cost to CHOP faculty, researchers, and staff. LabArchives provides a manageable home for CHOP Research IP.
With several notation and document storage applications already available, such as Google G-Suite, Microsoft One Note, EverNote, etc., when should you use a LabArchives? Whenever you need to record and review CHOP research findings with others, which, for most researchers, should be quite often. Scientists inhabit an increasingly digital world, so learn to use tools that help you master that environment. Let LabArchives elevate your experience.
Anyone granted a CHOP digital identity (e.g. faculty, staff, post-docs, etc.) should use an account through the CHOP ERN licensed from LabArchives.
Sign into your LabArchives account as directed to see notebooks you own and those shared with you. A notebook or any portion thereof can be easily shared in a variety of states (read-only, editable, etc.) with other LabArchives users.
Your CHOP LabArchives account lasts as long as does your CHOP digital identity. That identity is known also as your "CHOP username," "AD username," and "Single Sign On" credentials.
In a word, yes! Some uses, like adding photographs or dictation directly into your notebook, are more easily accomplished using the mobile app.
Security & Data
CHOP LabArchives software and notebooks are stored with AWS (Amazon Web Services). All data is stored domestically.
Because LabArchives is designed to meet the needs of demanding notetaking, in all likelihood your data will fit easily. The maximum file size for LabArchives proper is 250 MB, and is 15 GB utilizing our passive Box storage arrangement. If you have individual files so numerous - in the tens of thousands - or sized in the tens-of-gigabytes apiece, then a different storage solution may meet your needs. If this is the case, please reach out to Research Information Systems for guidance in that case. Otherwise, count on LabArchives can meet your core ERN needs and more.
No CHOP or LabArchives employee can view your electronic research notebooks without your permission and/or knowledge.
Notebook owners and notebook owner delegated administrators establish who can view, edit, and share notebook data. Data and information entered into a CHOP notebook is CHOP IP, so care should be taken when sharing its contents.
Yes, you can create an offline version of a notebook in packaged WebArchive and PDF formats.
Yes, CHOP is enabling this feature in our environment.
CHOP does not allow HIPAA-protected PHI and PII to be stored in LabArchives. We recognize the challenges that such restrictions pose to collaborative science and will discuss arrangements with you that encourage and enable global collaboration.
Yes, the LabArchives Knowledgebase can instruct you on how to share notebooks and invite and respond to collaborators through the service.
Please speak with your PI, lab manager, or department/division manager if you have questions about the transfer any of your notebooks.
Please contact the labarchives@chop.edu to initiate a notebook transfer. It is understood that approval from either our Sponsored Projects or Technology Transfer administrative units may be part of this process. If your existing LabArchives notebook belongs to another Institution, please abide their policy on transferring data.
When using an ERN, as with using a physical notebook, best practices apply. All data should go into the notebook, even "bad" data points and outliers. No pages should be skipped or deleted. Mistakes should be corrected, not removed. Details surrounding the "how" of your experiments should be recorded, e.g. which solutions and reagents used, which instruments used, times between steps, cells used, etc. Make templates for capturing your basic entries such as date, title, hypothesis, background, observations, data analysis, ideas for future experiments. Additional specific practices apply to electronic notes, such as tagging entries for future search, sharing links to notes with Principal Investigators and colleagues, and uploading experiment meta data records.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) owns all Intellectual Property of Hospital Personnel, produced in the course of research, teaching, clinical duties, or other Hospital duties or activities or involving the use of Hospital Resources and Hospital Personnel hereby irrevocably assign all right, title and interest in and to such Intellectual Property. (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY, No. A-3-4)
As such, Hospital policy dictates all CHOP Intellectual Property contained in LabArchives resides in the CHOP instance of LabArchives. Any notebooks containing CHOP Intellectual Property may not reside in individual LabArchives subscriptions nor in LabArchives subscriptions of other institutions. If you require assistance migrating CHOP IP from a non-CHOP LabArchives instance, please contact Research Application Services at risapplications@chop.edu.
Storage
There are no notebook storage allocation limit settings for CHOP users to contend with. We do not pay per unit of storage or have a storage ceiling. Any reasonable storage limitations are expected to remain transparent to CHOP users.
Box is another popular online data sharing and storage service with which CHOP has a service agreement. Any file larger than 250 MB, up to 15 GB, uploaded into a CHOP LabArchives notebook will be passively stored in Box, with a persistent icon link to the file appearing in the notebook.