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The Experiment Model

Our experiment model gather information and meta-information about an experiment, this includes its description (rich-text), lifecycle information, access permissions, cross-references (to other experiments, collection items).

The description is what constitutes a digital lab notebook entry, i.e. a written document where everything about the experimental process can be recorded. Because the lab notebook entry is the description of our experiment model, the terms experiment , lab notebook entry , and lab note are used interchangeably in this documentation.

Each experiment has its own lifecycle, can be independently referenced, frozen, timestamped and exported. Experiments can further be gathered into a project.

What is an experiment? Where to set its boundaries?

Experiments modalities widely differ among scientists, and certain users consider experiments on a larger scale. The cut-off to know where an experiment ends and the follow up experiment takes over is to be decided by users.

We advise against larger, bulky experiments. Instead, it is better split experiments into smaller units, so that each have a shorter lifecycle, and can be independently cross-referenced and shared.

Properties

  • Name (free text)
  • Description
    This is the most important property of the experiment. The description should be exhaustive, and as much as on a non-digital lab notebook should be recorded. The text can be edited online directly and can embed pictures, tables, and links. (Read more about the online visual editor)
  • Summary
    a short text summary of the experiment. This is not meant to replace the description but mainly displayed on list views and could later e.g. be used for submission to public repositories (i.e. the public summary of your experiment)
  • Creation Date (automatically set by the system),
  • Attachments
    to store all related documents that cannot or do not need to be embedded e.g. gel pictures, bioanalyzer's plot, etc.
  • Embedded images
    listing the pictures that have been embedded in the experiment description. (Read more about embedding pictures)
  • Notes
    as elsewhere in LabID, anyone who can read an experiment can leave a note
  • Links
    to relevant consumables, equipment, or experiment. Note that relationships to Samples should be managed using the relevant available samples in and samples out fields.
  • Permissions
    by default the experiment can only be edited by you (your group can read it).