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Lab Notebook Software Free Mac: How to Choose the Best One for Your Research



JupyterLab is the latest web-based interactive development environment for notebooks, code, and data. Its flexible interface allows users to configure and arrange workflows in data science, scientific computing, computational journalism, and machine learning. A modular design invites extensions to expand and enrich functionality.




Lab Notebook Software Free Mac




Type of storage: Evernote has the ability to store your notebooks in the cloud or on your desktop. Depending on your institution and the nature of your data, you may need a different level of security. If your research requires high security, storing your ELN on the cloud may be risky, but you can read all about the security measures taken by Evernote here. You also have the option of backing up your data to an external drive to ensure it is never lost and this is highly recommended.


When choosing a version, think about how much data you will be uploading on a regular basis. Images and videos take up a lot of space so you may want to upgrade to Plus or Premium if you will be using graphics. One of the best features of an ELN is that it is searchable and does not require flipping through many pages to find an experiment, but this often requires you to be able to search through attachments, so my final recommendation is to spend the extra $49.99 and get the Premium version. You will save this money by not having to purchase physical notebooks throughout the year.


Like Evernote, OneNote was not designed for use in the lab; it was designed as part of Microsoft Office for users to be able to record notes, make to-do lists and share ideas. However, many users have adapted it as their ELN of choice because it is very versatile. With OneNote, you can organize your notebook in almost any format because it has features similar to those of other Office products.


Cost: OneNote is available at no cost to the user via online download regardless of whether you have purchased a Microsoft Office Suite. However, you may run into costs if you plan to save large amounts of data to OneDrive. The first 5 GB of storage is free. If you need more storage, 50 GB cost $1.99/month or you can purchase 1 TB of space for $6.99/month. Remember that you do not have to save to OneDrive unless you want to access your data from multiple devices.


Findings is an electronic notebook designed by scientists. It came out in the beginning of 2014 and is still relatively new. Based on the current features of Findings, it is best suited for life scientists; it lacks chemistry drawing tools and molecular weight calculators that chemists use often.


What it does well: LabFolder allows users to organize their research projects using electronic signatures, witness signatures, protocol templates, audit trail, data import with image annotation capability and data export as PDF. The signature features mean that you can sign off on pages of your experiment as well as have others sign off on them, preventing further changes to be made. With an audit trail, all versions of your lab notebook and any updates you make to experiments can be tracked back in time if ever needed by a publisher or for a patent application. Both of these features ensure the integrity of your notebook. It also supports collaboration among team members with the ability to message your team and leave comments on their work. Tasks can be assigned to members through LabFolder. LabFolder also has a free mobile app available for download for Apple and Android devices so you can update your projects right from the lab bench.


Cost: Hivebench is free to use for up to 10 collaborators, 1,000 experiments and 10 GB of storage. You can also download Hivebench to your server for unlimited collaborators, storage and experiments. Contact Hivebench for pricing.


I decided to dedicate my career to the paperless lab after spending years in the lab at the Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine, frustrated with the experience of recording experiments in a paper lab notebook. To this day, I can still remember my first failure to reproduce an experiment.


  • NotedELN is great for:Taking notes during experiments since it automaticallysaves your input every 10 seconds so that your notes willnever be lost;

  • Keeping track of data analysis results since screen shotsand other graphics can be added to a notebook page bydrag-and-drop or copy-and-paste;

  • Recording your lit searches, since it will automaticallydownload papers from PubMed and archive them with yournotebook;

  • Recording your thought processes, since it will never getin the way of your typing with arbitrary constraints on inputformatting.



VS Code is a free code editor and development platform that you can use locally or connected to remote compute. Combined with the Jupyter extension, it offers a full environment for Jupyter development that can be enhanced with additional language extensions. If you want a best-in-class, free Jupyter experience with the ability to leverage your compute of choice, this is a great option.Using VS Code, you can develop and run notebooks against remotes and containers. To make the transition easier from Azure Notebooks, we have made the container image available so it can use with VS Code too.


Azure Machine Learning provides an end-to-end machine learning platform to enable users to build and deploy models faster on Azure. Azure ML allows you to run notebooks on a VM or a shared cluster computing environment.If you are in need of a cloud-based solution for your ML workload with experiment tracking, dataset management, and more, we recommend Azure Machine Learning.


Azure Lab Services allows educators to easily setup and provide on-demand access to preconfigured VMs for an entire classroom.For educators looking for a way to work with notebooks and cloud compute in a tailored classroom environment, Lab Services is a great option.


If you are looking for a solution you don't see below, have questions or need to find out more information about software listed below, please email the UMass Chan Help Desk at umwhelpdesk@umassmed.edu or for area-specific needs please contact:


ChemLab originated from academic work in computer simulation and software design at McMaster University. It has continued to be developed with extensive input from educators interested in the possible application of computer simulations for classroom and distance learning.Model ChemLab is a unique product incorporating both an interactive simulation and a lab notebook workspace with separate areas for theory, procedures and student observations. Commonly used lab equipment and procedures are used to simulate the steps involved in performing an experiment. Users step-through the actual lab procedure while interacting with animated equipment in a way that is similar to the real lab experience.ChemLab comes with a range of pre-designed lab experiments for general chemistry at the high school and college level. Users can expand upon the original lab set using ChemLab's LabWizard development tools, thus allowing for curriculum specific lab simulation development by educators. These user designed simulations combine both text based instructions and the simulation into a single distributable file.


LabArchives is a secure, cloud-based digital notebook built for scientists to use in the conduct of research. This electronic lab notebook (ELN) system enables researchers to capture, manage, store, and share information and data generated from research. LabArchives is designed to facilitate collaboration amongst researchers within a lab, in the institution, and outside the institution.


The Indiana University School of Medicine provides free access to LabArchives, which includes unlimited notebook creation and storage. If you are interested in accessing LabArchives, please contact IUSMELN@iu.edu.


LabArchives is the only electronic lab notebook system supported by the IU School of Medicine. If you are interested in using another ELN system in your lab, it must comply with University policy to safely collect and store institutional research data. Please refer to the links below for relevant guidance to ensure this compliance.


It is no secret that the paper-based laboratory notebook is the most widely used form of experimental data tracking in labs worldwide. It has been around for several centuries (even da Vinci had one), and you will find it in the cabinet of every scientist. But does that necessarily imply that it is also the most efficient way of recording scientific data?


The majority of the recently-developed ELNs are set up as cloud-based software (like Dropbox). This means that researchers can seamlessly collaborate in real-time, eliminate tedious manual data exchange, and overcome hurdles in communication.


Whatever your stance on electronic lab notebooks may be, it is clear that a digital revolution is at our doorstep. With over 60 ELNs out there, it is tough to decide where to even start. That is why we rounded up the 9 very best ELNs that will make your transition easier for when you choose to take that red pill.


*Splice is a scientific news blog funded by BioSistemika LLC, a software development company that also co-founded sciNote LLC (free open-source ELN). All of the ELNs included in this review were scored by an independent author and researcher, based on the major criteria identified in the largest study on user perception of electronic lab notebooks ever published, to provide the most relevant and objective insights for our readers. The author states that the views and opinions are entirely his own.


I personally have contacted each ELN venders and have them demoed to me, it took me more than two months. One of the outstanding ELN that not seeing here is the Labii ELN. You will be amazed how it different to all other existing ELNs in both design and functions and how it can link the experiments, protocols, samples, reagents, et.al all together. I specifically like it to be able to extract the metadata from lab note for statistic data analysis. You can find it at this link: -review-of-best-electronic-laboratory-notebooks_6 2ff7e9595c


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