'Increasingly, the information written or pasted into a traditional laboratory notebook is merely an index or commentary on a vast diversity of experimental data held in digital form. It is therefore anachronistic, to say the least, that the key to this wealth of digital data is held in analogue form. The result is not only the bulky and vulnerable physical records, but the lost opportunity to search, mash-up and cross-analyse data from different time points and methodologies. In an ideal world, we’d each have a tablet that replaced our lab notebook by linking seamlessly to all the relevant data sources in their native format, with the key intermediating record living in the cloud for longevity and portability.'
- Prof William James, Head of Department, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology
Electronic lab notebooks offer a wide range of potential benefits:
- They are easily searchable
- They can hold research data files alongside (and linked to) research records
- They can be easier to read than paper notebooks - no struggling with messy handwriting
- They are automatically backed up
- They require far less physical storage space than paper notebooks
- Researchers can access their notebooks from anywhere in the world via a web browser
- Notebooks can be shared with selected colleagues and collaborators
- The provenance of information (who created it and when) is automatically recorded
- Details of any edits are also recorded, and a full version history is retained (this information may be needed to defend a patent or resolve a publishing dispute, and ensures compliance with CFR Part 11)
- They offer a secure system for storing IP and personal or other sensitive data, allowing researchers to meet their GDPR obligations
- In the unlikely event of a security breach through a system fault, the researcher is protected by the contract (including penalty clauses) with the service provider
- ELNs are designed for research - and hence they provide specialist tools such as inventory management, the ability to search for chemical formulas, and integration with other tools