Collaboration

Team structures in a research environment are often complex and defined by groups, subgroups, or projects. As a team admin, using Labfolder allows you to have an overview of your entire project in a single place. No more emails asking for results, no more PDFs with graphs, no more tasks written on a Post-it for your colleague.

See how the advanced version of Labfolder will help you to focus on sharing data and collaboration:

Advanced version

Whether the team you are managing is large or small, it is important to make sure the right people have access to the right data. Your electronic notebook should reflect your work and structure in the lab, so we made sure you can format groups to suit you and organize the people within correctly.

Once you have created groups in your ELN, you might want to create subgroups, either for mini projects within a larger project or for your research groups within a department. This can be done in a few easy steps.

1. Head over to Manage > Groups.
2. Enter the group in which you want to make a subgroup.
3. Click the +Add button and select Add new subgroup.
4. Give a name to the subgroup, select the parent (sub-)group and click Create.
5. Once you have your subgroup you can add team members to it by clicking the +Add button and selecting Invite user. When selecting the group to invite them to, select the relevant subgroup and you are ready to start collaborating!

Advanced version

In the ELN you can assign admins for your subgroups. The sub-admin will be able to ensure that the right people have access to the right data, even without you (as the admin) taking all the responsibilities.

1. Go to the subgroup you want to assign an admin to.
2. Hover over the person who you want to make sub-admin.
3. Click the gearwheel icon.
4. Select Set member as admin.

If you need to take away someone’s sub-admin role, go back to the gearwheel icon and select Remove member as admin.

Advanced version

Due to the ever-changing and often specific structures of your teams, you need to be able to share your projects (or templates) with the group, while also keeping others as private. In Labfolder, you can customize the share settings of all your content to ensure the right people are seeing them.

1. Go to Manage > Projects.
2. Find the project that you need to share with others.
3. Hover over it and click on the gearwheel icon.
4. Select Share Settings.
5. Now you can choose who you want from the department or group to see the project and the data within. Of course, you are always able to go back and change this visibility setting.

The exact same procedure is available for templates, except that the first step is Manage > Templates.

You may need to change the ownership of data, in case the project leader changes or the owner has left the group, meaning someone else needs to take over their role.

1. Go to Manage > Projects.
2. Find the relevant project in your folders.
3. Hover over it and click on the gearwheel icon.
4. Select Change owner.
5. Select Transfer next to the person that you wish to become the owner.

The exact same procedure is available for templates, except that the first step is Manage > Templates.

It is always difficult to retrieve data when a team member leaves the lab, project or group. To ensure that the data is kept inside the lab or project, you will need to remove them from the group in the ELN. As the Labfolder license is usually purchased by the group, the license of a removed member returns to the group and is reusable.

Please note that before performing this procedure, you will need to change the ownership of all projects and templates that belong to this team member, even the hidden ones.

1. Go toManage > Groups.
2. Find the person in the respective group(s).
3. Hover over their name and click the gearwheel icon.
4. Select Remove member from group.

In research many people work together as a team, from group leader to technician. Therefore, it is very important to create a good communication network to be efficient. In your ELN you have the option of making comments directly onto entries, spread important messages and distribute tasks amongst different group members.

Comments allow you to comment directly on entries that belong to common projects. This enables discussion of data in the place where the data actually is: the lab notebook. You no longer need to prepare presentations, PDFs, and send emails just to discuss a simple result.

1. Add a comment by clicking the speech bubble icon in the right corner of the entry header.
2. Press the +add comment text.
3. Write your comment in the space provided and press Post. Everyone part of the group that that project belongs to will be able to see your comment.
4. Commentscan also be replied to and resolved when the issue has been discussed.

We know that being able to make entries in the same project is not the only way you will need to collaborate with your teammates. Within the ELN you will find a number of free-to-install apps that will extend your teamwork, such as Messages and Tasks.

1. Go to Manage > Apps.
2. Click Activate on the Apps you wish to install.
3. Go to your Dashboard and you will see the Apps there, all ready for you to use!

Has the lab run out of an antibody? Is the microscope under maintenance? The Messages tool is great to discuss lab-related topics that are not about data. Keep your team up to date directly from your digital lab notebook!

1. Go to Dashboard
2. Start a messaging thread by clicking on the + icon in the top right corner of Messages.
3. You have the option to select desired recipients or the whole group. You can also add recipients one-by-one by typing their name in the To:box.
4. Give the message a subject and contents and it is ready to send.

How many times have you started an experiment and noticed that someone did not prepare the buffer? Or that the incubator you are putting your cells into was not properly cleaned? Now you know why Labfolder offers a Tasks app! Create and assign tasks to your team members. You can even follow up on their progress and know when the task has been completed.

1. 1. Go to Dashboard
   2. Click the + icon in the top-right corner of the Tasks app.
   3. Choose a group to create the task in and select who to assign the task to.
   4. Title and describe the task and then click Assign.
   5. Once the task is created, the assignee will be notified and is also able to edit the task.

Next: How to manage your lab inventory with Labfolder