The documentation helps all project participants, the funder, interested research communities, and reusing parties. Documentation facilitates the correct classification of the contents and understanding of the research work. In addition, documentation is useful to you because it helps you keep track of your data and clearly structure your activities.

A rough structure of your documentation should be available before data collection, and it should be refined as the project progresses. By the time the project is completed, the documentation should also be complete so that the details of data collection and processing are not forgotten. In this way, you can minimise the effort required to create the documentation and avoid delays in publishing the data.

Regardless of whether README files, data dictionaries, codebooks, electronic lab notebooks or a combination of all: the essential information about your data must be clearly documented and available together with the data.

The content of the documentation also varies depending on the type of project and discipline. Key elements include:

• description of the context and the conditions of the experiments
• description of the method used to collect and process the data, including the tools used (equipment and software)
• contents of test protocols, field reports, laboratory books
• device-specific information required for an interpretation of the data
• description of the quality assurance measures and procedures carried out
• information on technical standards and calibrations
• documentation and explanation of the parameters, variables, abbreviations and codes, including column headings in data tables
• specification of data source when using existing data (references, DOI)
• documentation of people involved and their tasks
• documentation of the framework conditions for the long-term storage and subsequent use of data (licenses, usage restrictions, embargo periods, deletion rules)
• a list of all associated files and folders, plus a description of their formats and contents
• links to publications in which the data is used or quoted
• links to related or related documents and datasets
• links to all publicly accessible data storage locations
• recommended citation of the data

The term electronic lab notebooks (ELN) refers to software that helps researchers document experiments and also serves as a collaboration tool and for managing laboratory inventory. The software helps simplify the laboratory workflow digitally.

For example, an electronic lab notebook can be used instead of a paper lab book or journal to document experiments and investigations. It is considered a legal document, just like the classic paper laboratory book, in patent proceedings or legal disputes over intellectual property.

With the help of an electronic lab notebook, you can organise and store your experimental procedures, notes and protocols. One advantage of this type of data documentation is that metadata is automatically created in the software.

Further advantages of the ELN software:

• use on PCs, tablets, and mobile phones
• multiple users and collaborative work are possible
• direct transfer of data from analysis devices
• data integrity secured, verifiability by time stamp
• increased security through access controls
• easy saving, copying, importing, exporting and linking of data
• connection to other systems (API)
• full text search in all contents
• management of the laboratory inventory

A good overview and help in selecting a suitable ELN tool is provided by the ELN Finder of the ULB Darmstadt, opens an external URL in a new window.