RSpace

RSpace is an institutional research data management platform that combines a full-featured electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) with a purpose-built inventory and sample-management module. Designed around FAIR principles, RSpace acts as a conduit between active research and long-term data stewardship: researchers capture protocols, results, files and metadata in a rich editor while inventory records, persistent identifiers and repository deposits remain linked and discoverable. Since its move to open source, RSpace is available for private cloud, on‑premises or hosted deployments and is actively developed with input from research institutions and community contributors. At the ELN level RSpace provides a modern, mobile‑first editor for producing notebooks, documents and protocol templates. The editor supports embedded media, chemical structure sketching and searching (including import/export of ChemDraw/molecular formats and 2D/3D previews), SnapGene DNA sequence files, image annotation and in‑browser Office365 round‑trip editing. Documents and notebooks include revision history, signing and witnessing, full audit trails with timestamps, granular sharing and group permissions. Labs can use templates, snippets and automatic sharing to standardize entries and speed data capture, while Lists of Materials link experimental records directly to Inventory items for reproducible materials reporting. Inventory in RSpace is built to mirror physical lab workflows: configurable sample templates, subsamples and hierarchic containers (list, grid and visual views) let teams model storage racks, freezers and field collections. Items can carry barcodes and persistent identifiers (IGSN, RRIDs or RSpace IDs), including printed QR labels and landing pages indexed by DataCite. Common inventory actions — create, split, decrement quantity when used in an experiment, move between containers — are supported and generate audit entries, and the system can show geolocation metadata for field samples. Batch import/export via CSV, robust search and filter options, and the ability to attach Gallery files to items make Inventory practical for busy labs and core facilities. Interoperability and integrations are central to RSpace’s mission. The platform provides APIs and an SDK for programmatic access, and out‑of‑the‑box connectors to cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive), institutional filestores and iRODS. RSpace supports direct deposit of datasets into repositories such as Figshare and Dataverse and integrates with DataCite and DMPTool/DMPonline to link data management plans to recorded outputs — a workflow explicitly aimed at NIH data‑sharing compliance. Collaboration integrations include Slack and Microsoft Teams; tools for analysis (e.g., Galaxy) and research infrastructures (PyRAT, GitHub) are also supported or can be connected. Chemical lookup from PubChem, support for specialized label printers (e.g., Zebra), and a gallery system for files of any format further extend practical lab workflows. RSpace is positioned to meet institutional and regulatory needs: it supports SSO via SAML2 and LDAP, tiered administrative roles, full audit logging, versioning and features that assist 21 CFR Part 11 and GLP compliance. Administrators can configure deployment properties, manage backups and repository exports, and use an administrative “operate as” function for support. The platform offers migration services from other ELNs, free teaching licenses for eligible education deployments, and flexible hosting options including private AWS regions and on‑prem installs. Typical use cases include academic labs that need reproducible ELN/inventory linkage, research data managers implementing FAIR workflows and institutions seeking a single, auditable platform to capture experimental records, sample provenance and repository deposits while preserving integration with existing tooling.