Finalize a record and add witness signatures

Finalizing a record freezes the note’s current content as a version and signs it with who finalized it and when. Finalized versions are kept regardless of the version history limit, and colleagues can add a Witness signature to them. Use it when you want your lab notebook to show “this is what it said on this date”.

Before you start

• Only people with Can edit access to the note can finalize or witness. With View only access you can see the list but not sign.
• Your account must belong to a workspace.
• Unlock a locked note first.
• You re-enter your sign-in password each time you sign.

Finalize a record

1. In the note header, click ⋯ (Note tools) → Records → Finalise record.
2. Click Finalise now.
3. Optionally fill in One line about what this records (optional), e.g. Passage log, March 5 (up to 300 characters).
4. Enter your password and click Finalise and sign.

The list shows who signed, when, the one-line statement and the start of the content fingerprint (hash). You can keep editing the note as usual. If you do, the signature shows The note changed after it was finalised — this signature refers to the content at that time, so the signature never looks like it vouches for what’s on screen now.

Add a witness signature

1. Next to a record someone else finalized, click Add a witness signature.
2. Optionally add a one-line statement, enter your password and click Witness.

A witness signature doesn’t create a new version; it points to the version that was finalized. Witnesses’ names are listed under the record.You can’t witness your own record, and each person can witness a record only once.

What the hash chain does

• When you finalize, the server saves the note’s content at that moment as a version and computes a SHA-256 hash of that version’s data (the content fingerprint).
• Each signature combines the previous signature’s hash with the note, version, content fingerprint, signer, time and statement, and hashes that again with SHA-256. Signatures form one chain per workspace.
• If a signature or version content in the middle is changed later, it no longer matches the hashes that come after it.

Link the protocols you followed

You can record which protocol note, and which version of it, an experiment followed. Even if the protocol is edited later, you can still tell which version this experiment used.

1. In the experiment note, click ⋯ → Records → Protocols followed.
2. Click Link and choose a note in Search protocol notes…. With no search text, template notes are listed first.
3. When you see Recorded along with the current version, you’re done.

Linking and unlinking require edit access. Linked versions are kept regardless of the version history limit. See Restore an earlier version.