Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) provide a central framework for research data management during scientific workflow execution. In research labs, ELNs allow scientists to save time and effort spent on manual documentation, structuring, retrieval, and sharing of the data. Thus, the scientists can concentrate more on other aspects of their research. Our presentation demonstrates PASTA-ELN's key features, which are essential for transparent and consistent research data management in experimental materials science.

Keeping the raw scientific data at its source, e.g., on the hard disk of the researcher or the respective microscope, is one of the core principles of PASTA-ELN. The local storage of the data ensures its accessibility with conventional analysis software, while maintaining its confidentiality and security. At the same time, an adaptive CouchDB document database is used to store metadata, including the hierarchical structure of the project.

The raw measurement files are processed by PASTA-ELN extractor scripts while scanning the working directory. As a result, thumbnails, data, and metadata are automatically captured and integrated into the project. Scientists can create new and modify existing extractor scripts to tailor the data and metadata extraction to their needs.

In addition, as a member of "The ELN Consortium", PASTA-ELN facilitates seamless data exchange through a compatible (.eln) file format that conforms to the RO-Crate standard. This feature promotes effective archiving and migration of data and metadata across platforms, supporting collaboration and interoperability of the data.