# A guide to using the OSF wiki as an Electronic Laboratory Notebook Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) are a modern way to record experimental data. They can operate in a similar format to paper notebooks but have many advantages: 1. They are always available wherever you have an internet connection 2. Comments can be added by the supervisor 3. They can incorporate lots of types of media (screenshots, graphs etc) 4. They can be archived for long term storage by the university 5. They are searchable 6. They promote interaction between student and supervisor as lab book entries can be seen by both without a physical meeting 7. They track all changes made and can be rolled back to previous versions if required 8. It is much more difficult to lose them and all your data An ELN is one part of Reproducible Research, and an important part. Repro Research is not only the right thing to do, and required by many journals and grant agencies, but will also make your life easier and better. ## Creating an ELN If you are going to create an ELN on the OSF (ie here) then it will be a type of wiki, and embedded within the rest of the research project. These are both good things. ### Persistence of the research record Before you even begin with your project ELN, you should consider what happens when you finish the project. How will a persistent record of the research be kept by your PI and the university? I would suggest that the PI must be the owner of the project you are working on, and that at the end you create a registration that is a snapshot of your research "contract end registration" ### Starting with the ELN To create a wiki ELN you will first have to open a project at OSF. OSF has good documentation and a lot of detailed YouTube videos. Once you have a project the wiki will display on the homepage, but there is nothing in it yet. You can edit it easily using the wiki-expand symbol at the top of that panel ![wiki expand symbol][1] or alternatively the wiki tab right at the top of the page ![wikibar][2] The first time that you start editing the wiki it might not show up in real time in the preview pane. If this is the case press the save button at the bottom, then go back into edit a second time and it will now be real-time preview. ## Editing an ELN The wiki is written in [Markdown][3], a simple formatting language. Its really easy to learn and use. Alternatively you can just use the formatting toolbar. The OSF has help documentation on [Using the Wiki][4], which can also be reached using the question mark symbol in the menu bar.. If what you want to do is simple writing, text formatting and headers, maybe insert a link or picture, you will know enough to do all this after 10 mins of clicking around and investigating. Have a play. One nice feature of the wiki ELN here is that it is version controlled with all previous saves retained for you to browse. Look at the "compare" button at the very top. This could be useful if you deleted something or messed up and want to roll back to a previous version, or just see how things were before and copy the deleted section to re-insert. It is also a good thing for a lab book to have a continuous record of the changes made. ## Organising your ELNs Within a component all your wiki ELNS are listed on the left hand side. Unfortunately no simple directory system is possible here, though you could initiate further components of course. One way to organise your wikis is to prefix them with the date of that experiment `2020-05-17_Hsapiens-CDS` `2020-05-16_Mmusculus-introns` Another way might be to have a short topic prefix shared by all related ELNs, a bit like a folder name `CDS_Hsapiens` `CDS_Mmusculus` `introns_Mmusculus` `introns_Hsapiens` How to edit the name of a wiki is sometimes not very clear, but you will have to click on its name in the top left. There is a [help page][5] on the topic. Unfortunately I do not think there is any way to change the name of the "Home" wiki and that will have to be a table of contents or something. Ultimately though these are hacks, and you should make use of **components** to organise your project structure, including your wiki ELNs. @[osf](djg2u) *Figure: A structure of ELNs making use of components* ## Finally Now that you have a wiki and have played a little with formatting and writing it is the time to start recording actual science. In the [next section][7] I discuss how to write an ELN entry and what to write. I also have a document on [structuring your ELN][8] across the project. [1]: https://mfr.osf.io/export?url=https://osf.io/hd4e9/?action=download%26direct%26mode=render&initialWidth=862&childId=mfrIframe&format=1200x1200.jpeg [2]: https://mfr.osf.io/export?url=https://osf.io/8knd2/?action=download&direct&mode=render&initialWidth=862&childId=mfrIframe&format=1200x1200.jpeg [3]: https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet [4]: http://help.osf.io/m/collaborating/l/524109-using-the-wiki [5]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019930013-Rename-Wiki-Pages [6]: https://osf.io/djg2u/ [7]: https://osf.io/pfhqc/wiki/ELN%20entries/ [8]: https://osf.io/pfhqc/wiki/Structuring%20your%20ELN/