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Digital Research Notebooks

Use Digital Research Notebooks, via the UQ Research Data Manager system, to organise, store, curate and share all your project's research or laboratory data including working documents, images, observations, and data in any format.

How to access the DRN (UQ users only)

All UQ collaborators that are added to a DRN via UQRDM can access their notebook in two different ways.

Note: You will not be able to access your DRN until you have activated your account.

  1. Access via LabArchives website. At the login page, select "The University of Queensland", this will take you to the UQ Sign-page, enter your UQ username and password, and click "Log in". 

 

 

  1. Access via the relevant UQRDM record page. Go to rdm.uq.edu.au and click on the "My records" page. Then select the record which you wish to access the DRN for, click on "Go to notebook" and login to LabArchives as per the instructions in step 1.

Overview on using digital research notebooks

If you are a new user, the following video provided by LabArchives gives an overview to the basic elements of your DRN, including:

  • How to manage your DRN
  • How to add an entry
  • How to create folders, pages etc
  • How to upload documents
  • Where to tag, comment and annotate
  • Find historical versions
  • Share and collaborate

Introduction to LabArchives (YouTube, 4m35s)

Page signing and witnessing

For UQ users who need page signing to be witnessed, they need to select this option in the UQRDM system. 

"Signing" function is available for anyone on the UQRDM project record, but it needs to be enable by the project record owner or the lead.  if users want to have "Witnessing" function, then the owner or the lead need to go to their UQRDM record, click DRN settings to select "Signing requires a witness". And the owner or the lead have to enable other users in the LabArchives notebook setting if other users want to use this function.

 The default is 'No witness required'.

  1. Go to rdm.uq.edu.au
  2. Click My records
  3. Select the record the notebook is attached to
  4. Click “Notebook settings”
  5. Select "No witness required" or "Signing requires a witness"
  6. Then click "Close".

Use custom widgets for UQ users

If you create a custom widget and wish to keep it viewable and usable to your research group only, follow these steps.

Creating a custom widget:

  1. Create a custom widget in Widget Manager.
  2. After confirming the widget is working as required, copy the widget source code and store it in a LabArchives notebook. You can find the source code by going to Widget HTML Editor, click Source.
  3. Add the widget as an entry on a page in a notebook.
  4. Ensure the appropriate user access permissions are set for the entry (the notebook Admin may choose to limit access to view only for other users in the notebook).  This becomes the template of the widget.
  5. Delete the custom widget from Widget Manager.

Using the custom widget:

  1. Hover over the custom widget template entry you want copy.  You should see menu options for this entry.
  2. Click the triple dot menu, then select Copy.
  3. Go to the page where you wish to copy the widget.
  4. Either click the "+ New" button at the top right of the page and choose Copied Entry, or hover between two entries (where you would like to place the copied entry) until you see the insert flag.  Click and choose More, then click Copied Entry.
  5. Your copied widget will then be added to the page.

Details of the Copy Entry feature can be found at the LabArchives Knowledgebase Copy Entry section.

Set the order of notebook entries

Standard DRNs add each new entry to the bottom of the page. If you prefer to have each entry appear at the top of the notebook page, you can set preferences in UQRDM.

1. Login to UQRDM and select your project. Click on Notebook Settings.


 

2. Use the arrow to change your preference to either Top of the page or Bottom of the page.

3. Click on Save Settings.

When you next login to your Digital Research Notebook, each new entry will automatically appear at the top of the page.