Protocol & SOP Management for Scientific Laboratories

With SciNote ELN, you can easily organize protocols in one place, create versions, use templates, and more.

Solutions Protocol SOP

Organize and share protocols and SOPs easily

Store and share various scientific methods, operational procedures, equipment instructions, safety guidelines, etc. with your team in a structured and easy way.

Create protocols according to your needs

Write, customize, and review different versions of protocols that are rich in content such as text, images, tables, checklists, chemical drawings, code, keywords, comments, etc.

Improve the reproducibility with protocol templates

Use SciNote protocol templates or public protocols from protocols.io to execute repetitive experiments or to ensure the reproducibility of your results, and save time along the way.

Keep track of everything

Mark each instruction complete as you follow the protocol steps and associate protocols with experimental data at any time to ensure data traceability.

Protocol and SOP management

Best practices of protocol & SOP management

See the best practice examples of Protocol & SOP Management functionalities in action.

Creating protocols in the protocol repository
Creating a protocol at the task level in SciNote
Importing protocols form protocols.io
Optimally structuring your protocols
Printing your protocols for lab work
Opening, editing, and saving files using SciNote Edit
Good protocol management practice
Advantages of using SciNote’s interactive protocols

Creating protocols in the protocol repository

Protocol repository in SciNote serves as a centralized digital library for your protocols and SOPs.

How to create a new protocol? You can either create a protocol from scratch by typing or copy-pasting the content from your existing protocol file (Word or PDF), or you can import a public protocol from protocols.io – an online open access repository of research protocols.

How to store a protocol in the Repository? You can store the created protocol under MY PROTOCOLS, if it will be used only by you. If you want to share it with your colleagues, store it under TEAM PROTOCOLS and make it visible to everyone from the team.

Creating a protocol at the task level in SciNote

Creating protocol at the task level. In SciNote, data is organized by projects, experiments and tasks. You can write a new protocol straight at the task level or paste content from your existing protocol (Word, Excel or PDF). Creating a protocol is flexible –you can add text, notes, tags, images, tables, files, calculations, chemical drawings and more.

Knowing when and by whom the protocol steps were completed. In SciNote, you can also mark when each step is completed to keep track of your work progress.

Adding the protocol from the repository to the task. Protocol repository serves as a library to which and from which you can add your protocols to your tasks. If the version in the repository changes, you will be notified.

Saving a protocol from the task to the repository. You can save your protocol under MY PROTOCOLS, or share it with your colleagues, under TEAM PROTOCOLS. You can link the protocol on the Task with the saved version in the Repository, so that you can track the eventual changes to any of the versions.

Creating a protocol in SciNote

Importing protocols from protocols.io

SciNote is integrated with protocols.io, an open access repository of research protocols that are both free to read and free to publish.

Find those hard to come by protocols. When you are working with advanced methods, it is not always easy to tweak the standard protocol so it delivers. In SciNote, a database of ideas is right at your fingertips.

Have the manufacturer’s standard protocols in your digital repository. Some protocols and manuals that come with the products you ordered are already on protocols.io and are just a click away from your SciNote protocol repository.

Protocols are neatly structured. As you click Import while browsing through the protocols.io database, SciNote will automatically save the chosen protocol in a pretty and ordered form.

Browsing is easy with a preview. The integration allows you to preview all the search results to your query.

Optimally structuring your protocols

Here are great tips to help you design your perfect SciNote protocol:

Summarize the protocol or describe things you need to do before running the protocol in Protocol description.
When it comes to steps, it is better to have more steps that are simpler than having fewer steps that are complex. Granulated steps reduce the chance of you forgetting which part of the protocol you already completed while executing it in the lab.
Split up more complex steps such as “Add 600 μL of buffer A to the column. Close the lid, and centrifuge for 2 min at ≥8000 x g.” into individual steps.
Write-out repeated steps: instead of “repeat steps 10-11” or “wash pellets 3 times with buffer A” spell out the individual steps.
Be concise when describing steps. Too much text makes it hard to follow. Move notes or tips to the Description of the step.
Use smart annotations to refer or cross-reference other Projects, Experiments, Tasks, instruments, reagents, and storage to be more concrete.

Read more about creating protocols.

create interactive protocols

Printing your protocols for lab work

All SciNote protocols are printable. We do encourage you to go paperless with our mobile lab notebook app, but sometimes that is not possible.

Working in an environment that is not gadget-friendly. In certain areas or rooms, mobile devices do not work, and paper is the only option.

No internet in your lab? No problem. If you cannot access internet while at the bench, you can easily print out the protocol you prepared in SciNote.

The need to put pen to paper. Sometimes scribbles seem to give additional room to our sense of expression.

Prevent contamination in highly restricted areas. If you do not have a dedicated device for such areas, you still might need to use paper.

Print your protocol

Opening, editing, and saving files using SciNote Edit

With the SciNote Edit desktop application installed on your computer, you will be able to open and edit a file attached in SciNote Task Protocol Steps or Results directly using the file’s native desktop application. Additionally, when you save these files, the changes will be saved directly back into SciNote, where you opened the files from.

This means:

Better access to Windows Office desktop application features, as their corresponding cloud-based versions have fewer functionalities.
Simplified editing process for files attached to SciNote.
The ability to open, edit, and save files without additional integrations within SciNote, since many file types require specialized desktop programs to access.

SciNote-Edit_Graph-Pad-Prism_Example_3

Example: Opening a GraphPad Prism file after SciNote Edit installation

Good protocol management practice

A protocol on Task is an essential part of documentation of your experimental lab work. SciNote allows you to create and manage your protocols or standard operating procedures (SOPs) within your tasks and have all data traceable from creation and optimization, to versioning and execution.

You can include all other important information on the same Task and have everything related to the executed lab experiment in one place. This includes the reagents, samples and equipment that you used, all calculations (e.g. quantities of reagents), images, attachments and results.

You can easily keep track of all particularities of the protocol execution by adding notes or comments to individual protocol Steps. It is important to keep track of any observed particularities, deviations, and other observations regarding the procedure or material used.

The protocol on Task is fully included in the generated Report in SciNote. This way you can document everything related to the executed experiment in a printable format. SciNote will generate a print-ready, editable report for you in a matter of seconds.

Good protocol management practice

Advantages of using SciNote’s interactive protocols

Most protocols start their existence as pdf or Word documents written by you, your colleagues or kit manufacturers. You can print them, save them to your laptop or a server, or to SciNote, you can doodle on them. But these protocols are still static, you cannot interact with them.

SciNote protocols, on the other hand, are interactive, dynamic, executable/runnable on your laptop, tablet or mobile phone.

You can execute them step by step, checklist by checklist, comment on them, connect them with results, instruments, samples, reagents, users, you can centrally manage and share them with your team. Protocol execution and all the mentioned links with other objects will be recorded, ensuring data integrity and traceability.

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