This page describes how research data is handled in TUM eLabFTW when it reaches the end of its active use. It explains what to do when a project concludes and how to delete data or offboard users before the project ends.

Data Retention and Server Uptime

TUM eLabFTW is only suited for management of active research data (hot data), and not intended for archival of inactive research data (cold data).

It is not planned to shut down the services soon, but there is also no certain time frame for server uptime or data retention guaranteed. Should the one point to close the instance occur, users and team admins will be contacted early on with a grace period to export their data (*.eln or .*pdf). Even if the servers should be closed later on, you can still import your exported research data to your own deployment of eLabFTW or into other ELN-Format compatible tools (see: TheELNFileFormat).

Long Term Archival

If your research is subject to legal, institutional, or funding requirements for long-term data retention, please note the following:

  • TUM eLabFTW is not designed for long-term archival. It is intended for active research data management and short- to medium-term use.
  • To ensure compliance with retention policies, you must export your data from TUM eLabFTW and store it in a dedicated archival system.
  • When archiving data, make sure to follow institutional and legal requirements regarding data anonymization and access control.

For detailed guidance, please refer to the following resources:

Data Deletion

Team admins can only apply soft deletions of data and retire user accounts. Permanent deletion of data is carried out exclusively for legal or compliance-related reasons, i.e. when a project concludes or sensitive information was uploaded.

1. Project or Team Completion

When a team, project, or chair is concluded, a deletion request for the team can be submitted via a dedicated form (coming soon...), following a four-eyes principle.

2. Legal or Compliance Reasons

If certain uploaded data must be deleted due to pressing legal or compliance concerns, please submit the deletion request via this forms (coming soon...) immediately. These cases are handled with priority and in accordance with legal and institutional guidelines.

3. User Leaving TUM

When a user leaves TUM. Please refer to Retiring a User Account for more information.


Retiring a User Account

When a user is leaving TUM, retirement of the user account and handling of user data is necessary.

  • Team Admins are responsible for managing the user’s data.
  • Content created by the departing user can be transferred to another team member.
  • After transfer, the users entries can be archived or restricted in visibility by the team admin.
  • In this case, the data is no longer visible to users but remains stored in the system for compliance and traceability.

Some facts about the mechanics of eLabFTW relevant for this procedure:

  • Users will automatically lose access to TUM eLabFTW once their institutional account is terminated.
  • In TUM eLabFTW, user team sign-ins can be either archived or deleted by an admin. Find further instructions in the following paragraph.
  • A user owning an experiment cannot be deleted. To maintain authorship / chain of trust, it is imperative that users are not deleted.

When a user is archived by an admin:

  • Users can no longer log in.
  • The user’s experiments are locked and cannot be edited until they are unlocked by an admin.
  • An archived user can be reactivated by an admin. Experiments need to be unlocked manually.


Workflow to Retiring a User 

This page describes the recommended offboarding workflow that team admins can follow when a member leaves the team. It includes steps to be taken by both the retiring user and the admin of the respective teams.  

Legend:

  • Time-stamping: The retiring user timestamps all their entries. They can do this via filtering entries by user, selecting all and then clicking "With selected: Timestamp". The admin signs all open timestamps of the user.  
  • Signing: The retiring user signs all entries where long-term clear name authorship is intended (i.e. for good scientific practice and to prove authorship in the future). For these elements, the user indicates proof of authorship is more important than anonymization. Their authorship of entries will be retained after the exit. This currently needs to be done selectively on the detail page of an entry.
  • Cleaning: The retiring user archives all entries which are clearly not necessary anymore (i.e. empty or testing-entries). Also, all of their experiments are set into a finished state. In the default configuration, these are the states Success, Fail, Need to be redone. 
  • Transfer of Ownership: The admin transfers ownership of all entries to the responsible collaborator. This is done via Admin panel → Batch actions → Owner → Transfer ownership
  • Archival: The admin can archive a user’s account when in a single team, like this:
    • Admin panel → Users
    • Search and select the user name
    • Press the button Archive User


Multiple Teams

Attention: If the retiring user is in multiple teams, archival of the user will affect all teams. When a retiring user is in multiple teams, please contact the admins of other teams.


Depending on how you want to deal with entries of the leaving user, a different retirement workflow might be more suitable.

Learn more about retirement workflows:








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