The goals of this ELN are:

1. Serve as a digital, searchable, online lab notebook for recording all research-relevant information: ideas, hypotheses, analyses, processes, inputs, results, outcomes, discussions, conclusions, etc.
2. Enable near-real-time and on-demand communication and research management between group members and faculty advisors.
3. Simplify multi-investigator (particularly multi-advisor) research management and communication.
4. Replace paper lab notebook functions with minimal disruption of established work flows and habits.

To achieve these goals, all group members are expected to adopt the following ELN procedures:

1. Actively post a comprehensive and detailed record of all research activities as they occur. Your ELN is your official record of your research and must be treated and used exactly as a paper lab notebook should. You are expected to post at least twice each work day, once in the morning with your planned research activities, and once in the afternoon with the results of your activities.  BUT, you are expected to document all research activities while you accomplish them.
2. Create a new post for each distinct research activity. That is, for example, if you work on writing a paper, then move on to setting up a new calculation, then return to paper writing, you would generally be expected to make three separate ELN posts (in addition to the morning and evening planning and summary posts).
3. Post sufficient information to allow others to follow the thread of your work. ELN posts need not include every minute detail of your activities, but should contain exactly the information required for, e.g., another group member to understand and follow your work.  As an example, if you work on a paper, you should be sure you have posted information on where the files you are editing may be accessed, and give a statement of your changes since the prior update.  When appropriate you should use the ELN as a tool for storing media files (data output files, images of data analysis, spreadsheets with data, etc.).  For media that is later revised and/or updated, simply upload another copy to be associated with a later post.
4. Never delete content added to the ELN.  Simply post or upload a new version taking care not to overwrite previous versions.
5. Always categorize posts by the type of post, Tag posts to described their content.  See this post on Prof. Beck’s ELN for more details.
6. View and confirm posts to your ELN by faculty as soon as possible. Your faculty advisor(s) will be able to submit posts to your ELN. Your adivsor(s) will use this capability to request information from you or assign you research tasks. You will be notified of these posts by email and asked to confirm their posting to your ELN. You are expected to do so as soon as possible.
7. Respond to any and all comments within a reasonable timeframe. Other group members may post comments to your ELN from time to time. You will be notified of these comments via email.

Be aware that this ELN system is in development (though the software used to run it is publicly available and widely used). Please be sure to contact Prof. Beck with any questions, concerns or requests regarding ELN functionality (including plugin and/or theme requests!, see Administering your Site).

Continue: How your advisor will use the ELN