FAQ

If a colleague shares a notebook to an email address that is not listed on your LabArchives user profile, you will receive an email notification that a notebook has been shared, but you won't be able to access it since another email address is on file for you. You have two options:

1. Ask your colleague to re-share the notebook to the email address that is listed in your LabArchives user profile (as found in steps 1-3 below).
2. If you don't use the email address that is listed in your LabArchives user profile often, update it to your most frequently-used email (e.g. [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]). 

How to change your email address on file

1. Log into LabArchives.

2. Click your name in the upper-right corner and select User Properties.

3. From the left, select Email. (Do not change the SSO ID on the Account section.)

4. Update the email address to reflect the email address that colleagues will share notebooks with you at (e.g. [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]) in both fields and click Update.

5. If you're able to update, you are done! If you had issues sharing before, ask your colleague to re-share with you using your newly-updated email address.

If you receive an "Email has already been taken" error that they cannot update your email address, or an error stating "An error occurred saving your account information", then you need to email [email protected] from your Columbia inbox and ask to have your holding account removed for the email address that you tried to update to. A LabArchives representative will reply within 24 hours.

6. After LabArchives confirms the holding account has been removed, then you can update your email address to your preferred Columbia email address using Steps 1-5 above.

You can give Columbia and non-Columbia colleagues read-only or edit access to your notebook or parts of your notebook via their email address. When you add them, a link will be emailed to them:

• If you share to a Columbia colleague with an active Columbia email address, they will authenticate through their UNI/password.
• If you share to a former Columbia colleague that has graduated, retired, or otherwise has left the institution, you should not share to them via their Columbia email address (even if they still have access), as only active Columbia users can log in with their UNI. In this case, please share via a non-Columbia email address, such as Gmail, and note the information below regarding free accounts.
• If you share to an external colleague through a non-Columbia email address (like Gmail), and don't have a LabArchives account through their institution (or personally paid), they will be prompted to set a password and it will create a "Free-edition" (guest) account. Guests can be granted edit access, which will become read-only access after 60 days. For more information see User Management. 

Columbia University users have unlimited storage and the ability to create as many notebooks as they want.

Generally it is recommended to keep a single notebook under 1TB total. Each file that you upload can be a maximum of 4GB.

Columbia has a BAA with LabArchives. It is certified as a secure application with CUIMC-IT Security, RSAM #5644. LabArchives is approved for PII, RHI, and PHI data across the University. Contact your ISO if you have questions.

SSL certificates provide full-time HTTPS security interactions for all users with the application and all data is encrypted. It in integrated with Columbia’s Shibboleth authentication systems. All network traffic is logged and monitored for any suspicious activity. Servers are kept in a secure, primary data center with a separate disaster recovery data center. Servers are protected by redundant, industry standard firewalls and security devices.

As the owner of the lab notebook, you have full administrative control, including what is shared, with whom, and what they are allowed to view and edit within your notebook. You can maintain both private and collaborative information within your LabArchives account.

If you share your notebook outside of Columbia University, it is your responsibility to ensure that the recipients follow the appropriate policies and have the appropriate data sharing agreement in place. See your departmental IT staff if you need additional information about data sharing agreements. 

LabArchives is a web-based collaborative tool that was specifically designed for the storage, organization, sharing, and publishing of research data.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

• Elimination of paper notebooks and need for large amounts of shelf space
• Ability to access your notebook from anywhere
• View/ manage group members’ notebooks and retain them even when they are no longer at Columbia University
• Intellectual property controls (versioning, timestamp, electronic signature that is FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11 compliant)

Columbia University will have periodic informational sessions on LabArchives, visit labnotebooks.columbia.edu for information. There are also online tutorials and webinars from LabArchives' knowledge base. 

LabArchives is free to anybody with a valid Columbia UNI. The cost is being covered by the Libraries and CUIT.

Navigate to Columbia’s custom LabArchives' login portal and sign-in using your UNI and password, then authenticate with Duo. You will be prompted to confirm your name and email, and select a role (if you are a Columbia officer, "researcher" is the best option). Now you have an account!

You will lose access to LabArchives through Columbia's license upon graduation or departure. Before your departure, we advise you to transfer the ownership of the notebook to a professor or colleague if they would like the notebook to continue to be updated/accessed. Bearing in mind data-sharing agreements and privacy policies, you could also export the notebook as a PDF.

Data can be uploaded as Word Documents, Excel sheets, PDFs, Text files, Image files, and any other data desired. The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 4GB. For files that exceed 4GB you can link to the file from another server. See Research Data Storage Options for a list of options available to Columbia University researchers.

Yes, LabArchives provides automated version control at the entry and page level tracks and stores all revisions, by users, for every entry. No entry can be deleted. Each entry is time stamped utilizing NIST.

Notebooks cannot be deleted once created. In a way it creates an archive, however, researchers may wish to use an additional data storage service for archiving. See Research Data Storage Options for a list of options available to Columbia University researchers.

Yes, you can export the entire notebook or any portion of a notebook as a PDF. You can also choose to create an offline notebook, which creates a zip drive with HTML files for the pages in the ERN and directory of attachments.

Rich text data, tables, images, sketches, as well as annotations of images.

Integrates with GraphPad Prism, MS-Office, PubMed, and provides for easy customization. There are other widgets available for added flexibility.

Supports Windows, Mac (including mobile devices), Android, and Linux.

The contract between LabArchives and Columbia University is covered by CUIT and the Libraries. If, for any reason, the contract is terminated, LabArchives agrees to maintain all of the Columbia data in a 'read-only' format and allow users to export the data for a period of 3 (three) years from the date the subscription terminates. The data remains the sole and exclusive property of Columbia University.

LabArchives functions within the browser on most mobile devices and there is also an Android and iOS app.  See Using LabArchives on Mobile Devices.  Because LabArchives is integrated with Columbia University authentication via Shibboleth, you will need acquire a LabArchives' password token for your device.