What is KI ELN?
KI ELN is an electronic notebook that is the platform of choice for electronic research documentation at KI.
From January 1st 2019, it is mandatory for KI researchers to document their research electronically.
The decision was taken by the vice chancellor on June 20th 2017 (Elektronisk documentation av forskning, DNR: 1-590/2017), after discussions with the Board of Research and the group for all Heads of Departments (Prefektgruppen).
The research at KI spans many different research areas, from Pre-clinical research to Epidemiological and Clinical research, with different needs and requirements for documentation.
KI ELN can be adapted to meet these differing needs and forms the backbone for research documentation at KI. KI ELN also facilitates interaction and collaboration within and between research groups at KI.
To access and use KI ELN, it is required to have a KI ID or a KI student ID.
For external users, this means that they need to be associated (sv. anknutna) to KI, this can be facilitated by the IDAC-administrators at each department.
Since 2010 when it was introduced to researchers at KI, the use of ELN within KI has grown exponentially.
Current number of active KI ELN users: 5771
Current number of experiments created by KI ELN users: 241676
Why should research be documented?
All research performed at KI should be documented.
Research documentation at KI should be done in such a way that it is possible for employees and external colleagues to follow and review the research.
Research documentation at KI is subject to international and national legislation, and to the KI guidelines for planning, conducting and documenting experimental, epidemiological and clinical research.
Research documentation should cover the intellectual and practical sides of research, as well as refer to the administrative documents pertaining to the research.
KI ELN strengths
Some of the strengths of using KI ELN compared to paper notebooks are:
- Storing data/information in one place.
- The data/information can be accessed by all research group members and collaborators.
- Research documentation and results become searchable.
- When short term students or guest researchers leave the research group, the data will still be available for the group and it will be easy to find.
- Coded personal data can be stored in KI ELN since the access to the data is limited to specific authorized persons and the audit trail enables tracing of who and when viewed the results. Read more about GDPR at KI.
- The traceability of the research is very robust.
- Access to view/add data can be customized for each person within the projects.
- KI ELN is very safe, and the safety is overviewed and improved at least every 2 years by a risk assessment performed by an external partner.
- The data is stored automatically, and the system is backed up every hour and again every 24h. The data is stored on two different servers around Stockholm to ensure redundancy and safety.
- Electronic documentation can help researchers to meet increasing demands on transparency from funders and journals.
- Electronic documentation curbs risks for research misconduct and fraud.
- Possibility to save time by using experiment templates.
- Central administration and support at KI.