eLabJournal

Functionality and Superb Customer Support

Comments: Our overall experience with eLab Journal has been exceptional. We are glad we chose to partner with them because they were definitely the right choice! They have helped us immensely and we would not have achieved a successful project outcome without them.

Pros:

Working with the team at eLab Journal to implement our LIMS and make enhancements as our laboratory has grown has been a wonderful experience. Everyone we have worked with is responsive and collaborative. The software itself has amazing functionality and provides the features we need to act as an efficient, high throughput testing laboratory.

Cons:

When we implemented the software in 2020, some of the menu items and navigation seemed disjointed and not exceptionally intuitive. eLab Journal has evolved since then and we have seen improvements. The team is also open to our feedback as system users.

Keeping Track of the Research

Comments: This has been a great experience. At first had only planned to use for single aspect of research project and now pushing for us to incorporate into other areas. Customer support has been excellent. Always quick to respond when have questions or requests, and so very willing to work with us to customize the system to our needs.

Pros:

Although there was a learning process to using the system, it did not take more than a week for us to build the framework that needed for managing samples and recording experimental data. Have multiple users with different levels of comfort with technology and hearing more and more from group that so glad that set this up for this research project. Really appreciate that Microsoft Office integrated into system, not only for editing files but as sections within a entry. This has allowed users that do not have access to office to work with us with ease

Cons:

Lacking some options that know are available on other electronic notebook freeware (To Do Lists, Task assignment, Calendar, Messaging center, view only of integrating Microsoft office components, comment tracking, tags for indexing entries). One option that would love to have that seen in other electronic notebook software is the option to share study with outside user so can view (not edit) for defined period of time without using a licensed space. Would be happy if there was a limit on how many of these could exist at a time

Alternatives Considered: Labguru

Reasons for Choosing eLabJournal: Needed a inventory system that allowed better handling of aliquots and lineage. The permission management system was better for the needs of the group. And that hardly anything is every truly gone, can track history of pretty much everything.

Switched From: Labfolder

Reasons for Switching to eLabJournal: The customer service, the rep who set up our demo provided such good information. Was impressed that during the demo period (which was a month), he not only respond well to our questions but took our feedback and entered as requests for modification of the system. Demonstrated to us that would work with us to help us use the system to fit our particular needs

Online journal

Comments: Better for the environment and also don't have to worry about losing/spilling stuff on lab notebook.

Pros:

Once again it allows for easy access to other lab mates by simply sharing it with them. No issues with legibility or whatever.

Cons:

Takes a while getting used to actually typing in experiments, protocols, data, etc. but it can be more convenient than conventional paper.

eLab has helped manage a veritable flood of samples

Comments: Overall, I'm very pleased with eLab. It has greatly streamlined the tracking of sample receipt and downstream processing for thousands of samples, allowing me to set up standard procedures that even novice undergraduate students can follow without difficulty. Likewise, the pricing was very competitive and the team at eLab has been very responsive and pleasant to work with.

Pros:

This product has greatly facilitated the standardization of sample intake and inventory. Likewise, I really appreciate the ability to set up lab protocols (with version tracking) and standardized experiment templates. These features, in particular, make it easy to bring on new lab helpers in an undergraduate setting. There is no need to manage and track shared files or folders, and when a student leaves, their records and activities are preserved. The interface has generally been quite intuitive and easy to maneuver, and customer support is responsive and helpful if a user runs into problems.

Cons:

There are still a few glitchy (largely aesthetic) areas. For example, the "Lineage" button appears to multiply as one clicks on or manipulates successive sample records. This can be resolved by refreshing the page, but it is not guaranteed that you will remain on the same sample record when you refresh. This doesn't seem to impact the integrity of sample records, but can be annoying when working with a lot of sample records. There is not yet a function to create copies of plates of samples (e.g., whole-plate aliquots, series, or downstream product). One can work around this with batch importation, but I do look forward to this feature eventually being incorporated.

Alternatives Considered: Benchling and SciNote

Reasons for Switching to eLabJournal: eLab offered a combined electronic lab journal and inventory tracking/management platform that was both intuitive and economical.

6 month of eLAB and don't want to miss it anymore

Pros:

We're working with several microorganisms and getting them organized into easily trackable collections are a big plus for us. In general we're using the customizable samples a lot, also for tracking individual fermentation batches. Together with the barcoding feature, tracking and identifying samples has become really straight forward. Another great feature is the collaborative approach we can use, when we work on different projects. Everybody in the team can contribute with individual experiments and still everything is organized into the same project/study, which makes tracking the overall progress really easy.

Cons:

One of the things that certainly need some improvement is the data-management system. You can store data within experiments and in a dedicated file-storage system, but these are not interconnected (at least not that I know). And to work with the file-storage is also not the most straight forward way to organize your files. A little more database management functionality here could go a long way.

Alternatives Considered: Labfolder

Reasons for Switching to eLabJournal: Labfolder has a very bad reputation for being rather slow and most importantly unstable.