RSpace notebooks

Electronic notebooks

Information Services has completed a trial of the RSpace enterprise ELN platform, and as from 1 January 2019 RSpace has been added to its expanding portfolio of services for researchers. The University of Edinburgh-hosted RSpace service benefits from integration with local infrastructure, allowing researchers to log in with their University login (EASE), link to files on DataStore, and archive data in DataShare.

RSpace is a multi-faceted research tool in a single, secure system accessed conveniently through any modern web browser. RSpace is an electronic lab notebook that enables researchers to do the following:

capture and organize data
use as collaboration software for groups to organise and share data
use as a management tool for principal investigators to observe and manage lab workflows
use as a platform for institutions to capture, publish and archive data
use the new sample inventory feature

The University has a discounted licence agreement with RSpace to provide the standard RSpace Enterprise edition.

Data security

The RSpace Enterprise service is maintained on a University server which is backed up daily with a four week retention period.
Access to the service is authenticated via your University login (EASE).
The service is not suitable for sensitive data relating to human individuals such as patient data or other special categories data.
The Harvard University ELN matrix reviewed RSpace to be suitable for their Level 3 category of data security.

How to obtain access

To request a demo for your group or sign up for a two month free trial, contact Software Services.

Software Services RSpace page

RSpace licenses are available free of charge for classroom (teaching) purposes. If you need licenses to use RSpace for classroom (teaching) purposes, please email Research Space using your University email, and indicating the name(s) and UUN(s) of the user(s) in your class including the details of the teacher or class leader.

Useful resources

RSpace enterprise platform website

University of Edinburgh Software Services RSpace Licence wikipage

University of Edinburgh user help wiki

Getting support

The Research Data Service hosts the University of Edinburgh instance of RSpace. User support is provided directly by the RSpace team at info@researchspace.com.

Webinars and training videos

A series of RSpace webinars has been organised for the 2022-23 academic year. These webinars will be held in Teams, once booked you will receive a meeting invitation. Each webinar will also be recorded and added to the archive at the bottom of this page for those who cannot attend.

Title & Description	Date and Time	Booking Link
What is RSpace and why should I use it? An overview of why researchers all over the world are making the transition from paper to electronic research data capture. What advantages and efficiencies can a digital data platform like RSpace offer you personally, and how does RSpace also benefit the longer term research objectives of the your lab and institution? We will also touch on related topics such as 21CFR11 compliance, FAIR data principles, Research Data Management (RDM), Research Integrity (RI) and addressing user concerns that can act as a barrier to adoption. We will also take a “mile high” look at RSpace and discuss getting started with the platform for totally new users.	06/10/2022 1300 - 1430	Book
Using RSpace Electronic Notebook An introduction to creating content in the Workspace, storing files in the Gallery and the principles of within-lab and between-lab sharing and collaboration and tips for Principal investigators. There will also be some demonstrations of fast easy ways to get raw data into RSpace to minimize effort and typing.	02/11/2022 13:30 - 15:00	Book
Getting the most out of RSpace - advanced functions, integrations and magic tricks. Creating and working with Forms and Templates Round-trip editing of data files and offline editing of RSpace documents Revision history & file versions Advanced search and tips for maximizing traceability Using third party integrations for communication Different organizational strategies for segregating data into projects with appropriate management and access Advanced data export, archiving of data cohorts, moving to a new lab Signing and witnessing - why is it important? The new “publish” features for allowing you to share your data with the world The RSpace API and CLI	05/12/2022 13:00 - 14:30	Book
The RSpace Inventory system (RSINV) A discussion of how you can use RSINV to make sure that information about your samples and materials is recorded as part of your research record. Basics of the inventory interface on computers and mobile devices Main entities – containers, samples, subsamples, workbench Creating containers, samples and sample templates Types of container – list, grid, image Navigational views – List, Tree, Card Moving items from bench to a container and elsewhere Gathering materials together using baskets Creating a List Of Materials (LOM) Introduction to barcodes Import using CSV	18/01/2023 14:30 - 16:00	Book

We previously hosted several RSpace training webinars in 2020. The recordings for these along with links to RSpace training videos are provide in the table below.

Online RSpace webinars (2020)	Recording
25th June 1400-1500 – RSpace integration with Chemistry applications and data types	View webinar recording on MediaHopper
7th July 1300-1400 – Aimed at CSE but open to all	View webinar recording on MediaHopper
15th July 1400-1500 – Aimed at CMVM but open to all	View webinar recording on Media Hopper
23 July 1500-1600 – Aimed at CAHSS but open to all	View webinar recording on Media Hopper
RSpace recommend this training video on YouTube	Full RSpace training video on YouTube
RSpace help documentation contains a large number of training videos	RSpace interactive help documentation site

This article was published on 20 Sep, 2023