Verified User in Research
UR
Verified User in Research
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Scinote in a small molecular biology lab"
3/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

I really like being able to see all the tasks in an experiment laid out. I find this feature especially helpful when planning or if I have been away from a particular experiment for a while.

Where we have come across issues and contacted the Scinote team, they have responded quickly and kept us up to date on progress. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

In many cases we are still writing our results in other software first (word, excel, illustrator, powerpoint) and then uploading into Scinote, because the other programs are more user friendly.

Having to switch between results and methods can also be frustrating. It would be nice if you could have a task with methods and results as part of the same screen (or have a choice of templates with that as an option). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Hello - Thank you for your feedback! SciNote serves as a hub and provides a structure that allows you to host relevant information on the platform, to link notes to inventories and protocols, and to add metadata to your experiment. It is very flexible, but also not meant to replace all other text/graphic/presentation software that users prefer (it does come with Microsoft online integration though!). This is why we recently launched SciNote Edit (desktop app) - with it, you can open these file attachments directly from SciNote in their native desktop program. Any edits will be captured and saved directly into SciNote. This streamlines the editing of these attachment files, and creates a better experience for all our users.

If you haven't had a chance to try out SciNote Edit, we strongly encourage you to! You can find information about SciNote edit in the link below.

See how SciNote improved
Taylor B.
TB
Taylor B.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Great for Inventory Management"
5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

I love being able to have all my inventory in one location. It can keep up with anything you want to add. Its really easy to use and we use it frequently. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

None that I can currently think of. It's pretty straightforward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Biotechnology
UB
Verified User in Biotechnology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"A good way to stay organized as a team"
4.5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

SciNote is a good way to stay aligned with your team. It provides one place for everyone to upload files, protocols, results, etc. As long as your entire team is dedicated to keeping it updated, it is an excellent tool to stay organized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

SciNote often changes the format of their website slightly, which can be annoying. Once I learn how to use the new format, it often changes. Also, the results tab can be extremely slow to load; I often have to refresh the tab multiple times for it to actually load the results files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Thank you for your feedback for us! I will pass that on to our Product team to make sure they are aware of the user interface and loading issue you mentioned. Do feel free to reach out to your CSM directly so we can narrow in on the loading issue - would be good to know what file types are on the results page.

Thank you for your wonderful comment about SciNote helping you stay organized with the team - and thank you also for choosing SciNote!

Verified User in Research
UR
Verified User in Research
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Seems great for biologists, not so much for chemists"
2.5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

It is very easy to organize experiences and to link it with other materials. The stock management part is very usefull as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

I miss being able to inser other objects in the text part of an entry. I like to mix and match text, pictures and tables in the same field. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Umed T. B.
UB
Umed T. B.
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
"Staying organized is the name of the product"
5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

SciNote is the most intuitive and descriptive electronic lab notebook that could be found to date. It immensily helps to stay organized and make important notes during the experiments. The layout of the website make it very easy to find necessary experiment, tasks, and the specific steps. Morevover, it makes it much easier to stay organized and keep track of experiment progression. The ability to share planned experiments and assign the task helps to keep all the project members organized. Seamless dulication of every aspect of the experiments provides the sought-after release from the necessaity to re-write every step over and over again - all is needed is to modify key steps for the given experiment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

There are some missing features that would have made the website even better. Specifically, the tasks connection only presented in the overview of the experiment, while no such relationship reflected on the Navigator bar. Website is not very well optimized for the touchscreen. And the app version feels like a beta-test. The SciNote is constantly upgrading, so in the future most of the issues should be addressed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Hello Umed. I am glad you enjoy using SciNote! I know the visualized workflow/task relationship is one of the strengths of SciNote. I will make sure to pass on your feedback about task relationship in the Navigation panel to our Product team.

For the app, it is indeed in beta - which also means that your feedback is extremely helpful for us right now as we further improve and develop features for the app. If you have suggestions for the app, please email them to support@scinote.net or let your CMS know. You can also read a little bit about how we developed the app and the plan for it in the future in our blog post (link below).

Thank you again for choosing SciNote!

See how SciNote improved
BS
Bradley S.
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
"Great way to organize data."
4/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

It can create a testing plan from your own format or a premade format. It helps me standardize the work we do on a daily basis. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

Some times it hard to navigate and find the location of some files I have created. This mainly occurs when I am switching from mobel to desk top versions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

KS
KARAN S.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Perfect for effiency"
5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

The Layout is perfect! It provides a seamless workspace. While they are still improving, the ELN does provide a base for efficient reporting of data. Navigating through each section is simple and quick. Not to mention the commenting section does provide a good basis for optimally reviewing data. And the Autosave feature a plus, without us having to worry about data loss while working. Also, creating templates for similar experiments is much easier. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

Tagging other experiments or tasks is still a challenge sometimes. Also, I think there is still some room for improvement in tagging other person for review or leaving a comment for them in a task. Because once a person views the comment in the bell icon, the notification is turned off. It would be great if SciNote could incorporate a way to differentiate the notifications based on, 'yet to resolve' and 'resolved' so that the resolved onces do no show up and the ones that are not resolved yet still appear on the bell icon. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Thank you, Karan, for sharing your experience. We are so happy to hear that you have found SciNote helpful in improving efficiency in your organization!

Please feel free to let your CS Manager know about your challenge when it comes to tagging. The Manager might be able to provide some tips and tricks to assist with the tracking of comments. Our CS team is also in direct contact with the Product team to advocate for improvements and features - much of which are user-driven. So your suggestions will make a difference and will help us prioritize.

(I will also pass this comment on to the Product team, as well).

Thank you for choosing SciNote!

Caitlin M.
CM
Caitlin M.
Senior Research Scientist, RNA Biology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Pretty good ELN"
3.5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

The capabilities to organize experiments within folders, and tasks within experiments, are sophisticated enough to represent the logical relationship of experiments and tasks to one another. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

This is at least partly my fault, because I could use tags and don't: if I use the search feature to try to find a protocol template, search terms within the protocol name are not always sufficient to find the protocol. I also haven't found an efficient way to jump to the subset of templates that I have authored, bypassing others.

The default level of zooming, when I look at a workflow, is such that navigation panes take up most of my screen, with only about a third of the screen left for the experiment itself.

While I understand the need for automatic timestamping, it would be helpful to me if it were possible to display alternative timestamps that more accurately reflect when the work was done, in cases where a protocol is performed over a series of days and I only update SciNote at the end.

It would be great if SciNote could be automatically integrated with software like Airtable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Hello Caitlin,

Thank you for your feedback! I want to take this opportunity to provide some ideas from our CS team to see if we can improve your experience - 3.5 stars is definitely not what we strive for!

Re: searching for protocol templates, especially the ones authored by you

- When looking for protocol templates authored by you, take advantage of the search + filters inside the protocol template repository (top right above the column headings bar, you will see a magnifying glass icon and a funnel icon), as opposed to the global search. There is a "published by" filter available, where you can specify the author of the protocol template.

- Can also consider using the "keywords" field within the protocol template

Re: Zooming, workflow, and navigation

- Consider closing the navigator to allow more space for the workflow area. We might need to see how you use the interface to provide better suggestions; feel free to contact your CSM about this!

Re: automatic time stamping & alternative

- We would suggest marking each step as complete on each day that you complete it. Many of our users have found this quite helpful for them to track what's completed and keep them on top of the tasks.

- Other options are to come back at the end of the experiment and write down in the text editor the date each step was completed, or add the time the step is completed to each step.

As the timestamp functionality is tied with the integrity of the audit trail, we will not be able to enable the ability to edit timestamps or input alternative timestamps. This is more a feature itself to ensure proper traceability.

Re: Airtable

- We have reached out to the Product team and added this as a suggestion. We will also pass on your comment re: improving search bar capabilities.

Finally, I want to mention that your Customer Success Manager is available not only to provide free onboarding and training, but also to serve as a resource whenever you have questions or want to give us suggestions. No question is too small - please consider reaching out to us! If you are not sure who your CSM is, simply email support@scinote.net, and we will be ready to assist.

Thank you again for your feedback, and I hope some of the ideas above help improve your SciNote experience!

SA
Syeda Zainab A.
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Helps in very well organizing stuff"
3.5/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

That you can link different experiments- Makes it easier to follow up Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

If i click 'back' cursor, it always takes me to the main page and I have to restart Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Biotechnology
UB
Verified User in Biotechnology
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Useful but still has some bumps"
4/5
What do you like best about SciNote?

I like the organization of having steps, it stimplifies the procedural process and increases organization which is helpful Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SciNote?

A few things. First the difficulty of using exponentials in SciNote is annoying, because the home bar does not scroll with you you have to go up to the top click exponent then type it then scroll back up again to turn it off. It would be much better if it had a button like word does for expoenetial easy on and off Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Theresa Liao of SciNote

Hello! Thank you for your feedback regarding the difficulty in using exponential. Will be passing this on to our team to see if improvements can be made to the home bar of the rich text editor in the future to improve your editing experience!