Lab Website Template

Abstract

Research laboratories require a professional and up-to-date website to showcase their work, attract collaborators, and establish a strong online presence. However, developing and maintaining such a website can be challenging and time consuming. We present Lab Website Template, open-source website template specifically designed for the unique needs of labs, allowing lab members to focus more on research activities and less on web development.

A critical feature of our template is its ability to automatically generate citations (titles, authors, publishing info, etc.) from simple identifiers like DOIs, PubMed, ORCID, and thousands of other types using the open-source tool Manubot. Advanced pipelines automatically update citations when site content changes, on a periodic schedule, or on demand. The user chooses what sources to pull from and how to filter and display the resulting citations on their site.

To reduce administrative burden and to remain accessible to non-technical users, we automate everything we can, not just citations. This includes: first time setup of the repository, generating live previews of pull requests, configuring custom URLs, and more. To the same end, though the full codebase is exposed to the user, it is structured around the most common use cases and separates user content from internal logic. This allows users to concentrate on the content of their site without wading through implementation details, but still enables advanced customization if needed.

A key strength is our singular commitment to user support, demonstrated by consistently low issue response times and high successful resolution rate. We foster an environment where user input is highly valued and carefully considered, but balanced against maintaining an un-bloated design. Recognizing that source code and comments alone are insufficient, we also maintain a searchable, comprehensive, dedicated documentation suite so users can find answers immediately before needing to ask for help.

The success of our design and approach is evidenced by our template's widespread adoption, with 450+ stars on GitHub, 350+ forks, and a growing gallery of dozens of active labs using it. This work reflects not just a powerful software tool, but an evolving, open, community resource that effectively serves the needs of its users.