Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebook. Free, private and secure.
F.A.Q
Q: What are the advantages of using an electronic lab notebook over a paper notebook?
A: Only one person can write to a paper notebook at a given time, making it difficult to collaborate. Finding old data can get very difficult when you have to browse a large collection of paper notebooks. Additionally, a paper notebook may suffer physical damage and therefore requires you to copy it periodically to a different physical location as a backup. Electronic lab notebooks let you store your data on the computer or on the internet, thus eliminating these problems.
Q: What are the advantages of using an electronic lab notebook over storing your data in files on your computer?
A: Although using the computer solves some of the problems of paper notebooks, it is still not ideal: you still have to either share files manually with your colleagues or send them as e-mail attachments, which makes the synchronization process difficult, as the ammount of files grows it becomes more difficult to quickly find what you are looking for, and you still have to perform manual backup of your data.
Q: What are the advantages of SparkLix ELN over other electronic lab notebooks?
A: The hallmark of SparkLix is ease of use - we believe that you should not spend a long time learning a new software or installing components, nor do we believe that you should change the entire way you work. To start using SparkLix Electronic Lab Notebook all you need is a modern web browser. The user interface is kept as simple and flexible as possible, letting you work as you are used to. With the online file editing feature you can continue working with Word, Excel and other Office files online without leaving the Office suite you are used to, and without having to take care of synchronization issues.
Q: How does SparkLix ELN help me collaborate with my colleagues?
A: First you invite people you know to become your contacts in SparkLix. Once they approve, you can share experiments and protocols. Each experiment and protocol you creat is initially private and visible only by you. You can choose to share an experiment or protocol with specific contacts so that they can either edit it or just view it. As the owner you may change these settings at any time. Aditionally, you can create projects and assign your contacts to them. Every experiment and protocol that will be associated with a project will be accessible by all the project members.
Q: How does SparkLix ELN help me manage my results?
A: You can upload files of any type - images, spreadsheets, sequences etc' to your experiments and edit them online. When you share an experiment with your contacts, the files in the experiment are shared as well. You can add textual and graphic annotations to your results. You can create tables in the experiment and populate it with structured results, like a small-scale spreadsheet
Q: How can I find my data or data that was shared with me?
A: You can perform specific search for each type of data - experiments, protocols, files, etc'. You can search by keywork and by date range. Aggregating experiments and protocols in projects can also help in their organization.
Q: Does SparkLix ELN provide any added value for biological research?
A: Yes. We believe that an electronic lab notebook should have more than document management, so we include a reaction editor that helps you with the calculations when designing simple and complex reactions, a plate editor that helps you to group your samples and arrange them on well plates of different sizes, and an integrated NCBI search that lets you search for PubMed publications, nucleotides, peptides or any other data from NCBI databases and easily add reference from your experiments and protocols.
Q: How does SparkLix ELN help me keep my work GLP compliant?
A: SparkLix follows the 21 CFR part 11 guidelines - all your data is stored with information about who modified it and when. You can watch past revisions of your experiments and compare them to see what was added, changed or removed and by who. Since SparkLix restricts access to your data to unauthorized users, you can rest assured that your data has not been modified without your knowledge. Finally, you can mark experiments as completed and sign them.
Q: I am using another software (Microsoft Office, Prism, Bioconductor, FlowJo, ImageJ, etc'), can I keep using them alongside SparkLix? How do they interoperate?
A: Yes, you can continue working with the same software you are used to, and SparkLix just enhances the experience - you can edit files online while SparkLix takes care of synchronization, while you keep using exactly the same application interface you always use. You also get a better experience when you share files - when someone edits a shared file, it is locked for editing for other users, so there is no danger of users overriding each others work.
Q: Are there any other interesting features SparkLix ELN provides?
A: SparkLix provides you with a simple task manager, you can think of it as a replacement to reminder notes you stick to your computer monitor. SparkLix lets you create a list of your materials, group them into types, and reuse them in reactions. The home page gives you an overview of your current experiments, projects and tasks.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Sign up here. If you have a Google, Yahoo or Facebook account you can start using SparkLix immediately. Otherwise you can fill in the signup form and you will receive an activation link to your e-mail.
Q: Is it really free? Where is the catch?
A: Yes, it is really free, no catch. You are not limited by time nor by the amount of data. All features are fully functional - no limited functionality.
Q: My organization requires additional control and/or features. What are my options?
A: SparkLix for Business is available online for organizations that require enterprise-targeted features. SparkLix On-Site Installation is available for organizations that cannot allow their data to be stored outside their firewall and/or require custom-tailored features such as integration with their LDAP.
Do you have more questions? E-mail us at support@sparklix.com