This page contains information on the tasks and responsibilities of Team Admins.

Team Admins organize the ELN for their respective teams. At least one Team Admin is required for each team. Team Admins also serve as the main point of contact to the central team for the ELN at the RWTH IT Center. At least one Team Admin should be someone who holds a long-term position within the research group, enabling continuity from one generation of research assistants to the next. While Team Admins do not need to be researchers, having at least one researcher may prove helpful in reflecting the research processes and documentation within the ELN.

The number of people designated for this role should be kept to a minimum.

• Responsibilities
• Permission Settings
• Managing Users
• Note for the Educational Instance
• Note on Employee Tracking

Responsibilities

A Team Admin is tasked with the central organization of the team's ELN. As such, they (non-exhaustive list):

• manage users (create new users, designate Team Admins, ...)
• set up groups within the team (where desired)
• manage entity categories
• manage basic settings
• control the deletion of experiments
• publish page announcements
• link internal documentation
• edit the standard experiment template
• set whether to enforce read/write permissions
• can export experiments, calendars, and resources

Most of these options are found in the Admin panel in the User menu (upper right-hand side of the screen), as shown below:

Moreover, Team Admins should work with the research group to create templates for resources and experiments. While all users can create experiment templates, Team Admins should ensure these follow specific guidelines for their group.

More information for Team Admins can be found in the eLabFTW's Admin Guide.

Permission Settings

By default, eLabFTW has very flexible visibility and write permissions for each experiment. For more details, see Rights and Permissions.

It is important to set your own team policies for visibility. Team Admins can enforce read/write permissions. Keep in mind that:

• Neither the Team Admin nor System Admin can override `only owner` settings.
• Ownership can be transferred
  • But only by the owner if `only owner` permission has been set.

Please note:
The `only owner` option is disabled in the ELN@RWTH instances. Since this has to be disabled for the entire instance, please contact us and/or let us know in your onboarding session if you require it.

Managing Users

A core responsibility of Team Admins will be creating user accounts. This works in a few different ways:

1. Create users prior to sign-in:

In the Admin panel, as shown below, select the Users tab and enter the person's name and e-mail address.

Please note:
This address must match the address registered in the corresponding Single Sign-On (SSO) account.

2. Supply the System Admins with a list of users when requesting a new team (Work in Progress!)

We can add the users when we set up your new team. To do so, please download and submit this list with your team request.

Note for the Educational Instance

Here, Team Admins are also responsible for the organization of the team or teams. This includes the creation of teaching materials each semester. This can be automated using API tools. For more information, see the official documentation of the eLabFTW REST API and elAPI from Heidelberg University.

Note on Employee Tracking

As stated in the Terms of Use (Research Instance) and the Terms of Use (Educational Instance), the ELN is explicitly intended to support research and teaching activities. It must not be misused for monitoring or controlling employee performance or similar purposes.