RSpace
Attributes
DescriptionRSpace is a fully integrated open-source sample management and electronic lab notebook solution providing a platform that orchestrates research workflows into FAIR data management ecosystems
ProviderResearch Space
Information on ProviderThe origins of RSpace go back to 2012, when in a trial researchers at the University of Wisconsin preferred its predecessor eCAT over a number of other electronic lab notebooks. RSpace has been released as an open-source project in June 2024.
Activity Statusactive
Information on ActiveInventory and ELN 1.110 Release in 2025-05; ~monthly releases, changelog:
https://documentation.researchspace.com/article/mx11qvqg0i-changelog
Last checked on2025-05-20
Provider's data safety and data security strategiesCloud: Amazon Web Services; On-premise: SAML2 and LDAP-based user authentication; OpenID Connect; OWASP guidelines; Oracle Cert Secure Coding standards; penetration testing from an accredited specialist security testing company; Supply chain security; Password security; Network & database security
Reference usersUniversitätsmedizin Göttingen, Institut für Medizinische Informatik, contact: Dr. Harald Kusch, harald.kusch@med.uni-goettingen.de, as of 31.01.2023: As part of the research data management strategy of Collaborative Research Center 1002 (SFB 1002), RSpace has been introduced as a locally hosted web service in 2014 for pilot users at the University Medical Center Göttingen and is now productively applied by various research groups at Göttingen Campus.
Reviews
Exit strategydesigned to enable easy re-use of data outside RSpace, designed to avoid vendor lock in in any way, shape or form; Data migration services from other ELNs such as Benchling, Labfolder, and PerkinElmer ELN
Community
Known usersLeibniz Institute on Aging, Leibniz Institut für Neurobiologie Magdeburg, University of Bonn, University of Freiburg, University of Marburg, University of Regensburg, University of Göttingen, University of Edinburgh, Université de Genève, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Essen Medical Center, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, EPA Lausanne, Liège Université, University of Auckland, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University College London, CSIRO, Leiden University, Harvard, University College London
General
LicenseOpen Source, AGPL v3
PricingThe team at Research Space offers their experience and expertise on RSpace and RDM solutions as part of their Enterprise services to help research organizations implement, adopt, and maintain a modern and sustainable FAIR research data ecosystem. For more details see https://www.researchspace.com/pricing
VersionsClassroom, Demo
Location of providerHeadquarters United Kingdom; North American representative is Lab-Ally (also provider of CERF-ELN)
Usability
Customizable user interfaceNo input
LanguagesEnglish
SupportOnline documentation, Support by provider, User training (online, on site), Support Panel, HelpDocs website, Documentation for Researchers, PIs (Principal Investigators), System Administrators, and Developers, FAQ, Changelog, Guidance Videos; Training and Onboarding of users and administrators, regular consultations to improve adoption and impact, onboarding of software developers are available as part of service packages
Usage statisticsNo input
Offline functionalitiesOffline cache
Core functions (Daily work)
Data inputSketches, Plain text editor, With external links, Mathematical formula editor, Chemical editor, Dictation function, Scientific calculator, Calendar function, Table editor, XHTML editor
Data import (formats)Document formats, Scientific formats, Compressed formats, Image formats, Table formats, Evernote,One Note,Dropbox,Google Drive, annotation of files/images, zip, csv
Data import (method)e-mail, Drag & Drop / File Chooser, Automatic import
Data exportFormats suitable for long term archiving, Formats suitable for publication, pdf, html, zip, MS Office formats, csv/tsv, xml, RO-crate
TemplatesImport from internet sources, Import of own templates, Preconfigured protocols, protocols.io, JoVE
Search functionsAdvanced search, Full text search, Search for reactions, Search by chemical structure, Basic and advanced search, including Lucene queries; Full-text search; Chemical structure search; Filtering by object types, related objects, tags, owner, dates, etc.
CollaborationRole management, Rights management, Share settings, administrator rights; public sharing of documents and notebooks
Compliance with legal requirements
Preservation of evidenceAudit Trail, FDA CFR 21 Part 11, Electronic signature, Timestamping, Versioning, Functions for accreditation
ComplianceFERPA, FISMA, HIPAA, TickITplus, ADA, Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), ISO, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Clinical Practice (GCP), ASTM, Health Level 7 (HL7), CROMERRR, SAFE-BioPharma Digital Identity and Signature Standard
Extended functions (Daily work)
Laboratory management functionsMaterials database, LIMS connectivity, Inventory (devices), Sample Tracking, Ability to create lists of items ("baskets"); Added collapsible sections in Inventory item details; View a list of experiments associated with an item; View all connected inventory items in ELN documents; Automatic generation of audit entries when samples are associated with an experiment
Integrations and extensionsSlack, ChemDraw, MS Team Communications, Dataverse, SnapGene, Mendeley Data / Digital Commons Data, Dryad, Figshare, Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Box, Egnyte, Google Docs, Protocols.io, Nextcloud, Owncloud, iRODS, Fieldmark, DMPTool, DMPonline, Argos, Zenodo, Clustermarket, Collabora Online, DMP Tool, DMPonline, Argos, Dryad, Dataverse, Zenodo, FigShare, Jupyter Notebook, Microsoft Office Online, GitHub, Nextcloud, Owncloud, Office 365, Publish, YouTube
AutomationNo input
Device connectionDevice connection
Project management toolsCalendar
WorkflowsCross-project workflows, Project-related workflows, Hyperlinks
Integration in RDM and IT environment
Application programming interfacesREST API, Online API documentation; Tutorials and Examples for different programming languages https://github.com/rspace-os/api-tutorial; Python SDK: https://github.com/rspace-os/rspace-client-python
Controlled vocabularyControlled Vocabulary, Controlled vocabularies; support for bioportal ontologies
Data accessBrowser based
Data storage locationLocal, Cloud
Type of external cloud
Location of data storage or processing
Level of data protection (e.g. certification)
Transport encryption
Data storage encryption
Access control
Guaranteed SLAs
Interval of Data Backups
Number of Data Backups
Data Backups Encrypted
Template for data processing agreement (DPA), including the technical and organizational measures (TOM)
Authentication methods
User account security measures
Usage optionSoftware as a Service, On-premises
Server operating systemNo input