If you haven’t made the transition to an electronic lab notebook (ELN) yet, keep reading. This article provides information you need to know. The ELN experts and advocates interviewed for this story not only explain the benefits of ELNs and give tips for a smooth transition, they also address the concerns of the holdouts, who recently shared with Biocompare their reasons for holding on to their paper notebooks.

The amount and types of data being produced in research labs are growing every year, and keeping track of all that data is a truly Herculean task. Trying to do it in a paper notebook is nothing short of Sisyphean. Studies have found that researchers spend over 40% of their time on administrative tasks. Imagine how much more time you would have for your research if you embraced the ELN and allowed it to take most of the data management onslaught off your plate.

How ELNs benefit your lab

According to Garrett Mullen, program product owner, laboratory informatics at Waters, the advantages of ELNs over paper notebooks can be grouped into four high-level areas: Productivity (automation of workflows and exchange of data between systems), Usability (helping to make sure that users make the right decisions by flagging out-of-specification results, for example), Compliance (ELNs provide the tools to generate and defend data in the regulated space), and Intellectual Property (ELNs have the ability to provide a “pedigree” for your data, including “who” and “when,” which are often crucial in intellectual property cases).

Tea Pavlek, from SciNote, gets more granular in listing ENL benefits. She focuses on useful functionalities like tools for organizing work by project, tools to visualize tasks in the form of flexible workflows, almost instantaneous searches, easier collaboration, time-stamped and recorded activity on projects, automatically generated project reports, and the ability to create and share protocols.

ELNs can also embed process guidance (improving compliance), avoid rework through shared and accessible documentation and results, and improve the efficiencies of lab/management resources by simplifying paper-based tasks, interfacing with instruments and other systems, according to Adam Troxell, director of marketing at Scicord.

Why the trepidation?

Scientists who are bucking the ELN trend told Biocompare their reasons for sticking with paper notebooks included steep learning curves for ELNs, fear of a difficult transition, security concerns, and budgetary issues.

Clearly some of the resistance to change is driven by fear of change, but most experts agree that ELNs got off to a rocky start with many vendors promoting one-size-fits-all solutions.Tremendous improvements have been made in the last few years, and now there are different types of ELNs made to solve different types of problems. “When implementing and planning for an ELN, one must ask is this the right ELN for the job?” Mullen says. “[An ELN] that serves an academic research lab will likely be a terrible solution for a regulated pharmaceutical quality control (QC) lab. Having the right tool for the job is half the battle, and like any tool, if properly used it can be an asset but when not calibrated or configured properly it can be a detriment and painful or risky to use.”

Making a successful transition

Transitioning from a paper-based system to an electronic equivalent almost always involves some angst, but vendors are committed to making the process as smooth as possible. The migration is generally done in stages. The first stage, according to Mark Hill, development manager and senior software architect at LabVantage Solutions, is replicating processes used with paper notebooks in the ELN environment. “This is known as paper on glass. Once this is engrained in the users, the additional functionality available in an electronic environment can be leveraged.”

With the LabVantage Electronic Laboratory Notebook, that starts with the “Worksheet”—a virtual piece of paper on which scientists can record their thoughts and data. “The Worksheet is used to record all data and activities associated with an experiment, and it can be broken down into a series of numbered sections (such as Introduction, Methodology, Results, Conclusions, etc.) to guide scientists through the experimental process and keep them oriented within the worksheet, which may grow quite large,” Hill adds.

LabVantage also offers templates to help structure the most common experiments and other activities within the ELN, and these templates can be managed centrally if an organization wants to standardize them or selected by individual scientists. Additional templates can be created by users to support company-specific activities. These templates can be made available to all users or restricted to a selective group of users. “Templates make it much easier for a scientist to transition to an ELN because they are guided toward what needs to be done next, rather than being confronted with a blank piece of virtual paper,” Hill explains.

Data security and privacy concerns are top of mind for most of us lately.

Data security and privacy concerns are top of mind for most of us lately. “Companies should use strong data security protocols to protect the privacy and integrity of exchanged information,” Tea Pavlek notes, adding, “all data should be encrypted and transferred over safe connections.” She also notes that data security is not just dependent on the software, but on the way a laboratory is organized and manages its data.

A SciNote-supported study published last year found that limited budgets were a significant barrier to ELN adoption. The study found that users were concerned not only about cost of the software but also training hours, troubleshooting, maintenance, and support. One option for research groups with very tight budgets is open-source and free ELNs, which are becoming more common.

However, Pavlek points out, “In the long term, an ELN can pay for itself. Using an ELN in the laboratory enables researchers to spend less time on data, team and project management-related tasks, and increase their productivity.”

For those of you still using a paper notebook, your concerns about adopting an ELN and the challenges it brings are valid. ELN vendors know that and they are doing everything they can to ensure your success by providing everything from tutorials and demos to onboarding and support options. They also stress that it is essential to have organizational buy-in, with the right people driving the process and goals that are clearly articulated and achievable.

“For a successful implementation of an ELN there should be a planned high-level outcome with senior management support like, “Achieving a higher level of data integrity in our QC lab” or “increasing the rate at which we evaluate QC samples for reducing the amount of time to create a certificate of analysis. Having these types of goals will help reduce scope creep and keep the project focused. Without this type of focus many projects grow into never-ending implementations that never produce a return on investment, which gives ELNs a bad name,” Mullen explains.

What’s next for ELNs?

ELN vendors are continually innovating to address user and business demands. These days, computer technology is driving most ELN innovations. Blockchain technology, which underpins Bitcoin and allows digital information to be distributed but not copied, is of great interest lately for its potential ability to resolve intellectual property concerns associated with sharing research data prior to publication. Astroblocks is one early example of a blockchain-based proof-of-existence platform.

“The advent of cloud technology is likely the most impactful change for the improvement of ELNs,” Mullen reports. “The use of cloud-hosted applications can minimize/mitigate many user concerns about data footprint, security, and complexity of infrastructure and support,” he adds. “Current hosting companies, like Amazon Web Services, offer security and data redundancy as well as the ability to upgrade to growing hardware needs beyond what current onsite staff and onsite infrastructure can provide.”

Biocompare’s Lab Software Search Tool
Find, compare and review lab software
from different suppliers Search

In addition, true software as a service (SaaS) delivery is changing the landscape, making quality solutions available to smaller organizations without a significant internal IT infrastructure, explains Troxell. “ELN delivered via the SaaS model has reduced the total cost of ownership.”

Pavlek points to the interoperability of software solutions as a critical update. “Instead of having to use multiple software solutions and copying and pasting data among them, we see a lot of potential in integrating and connecting different solutions to work in sync and better serve the scientist’s needs.” She also points to traceability as an area that is ripe for improvement. “To make science truly traceable and fully digital, we have to capture data digitally and systematically at the moment of creation. It is important to understand all methods a scientist uses to capture data and treat them as different inputs—this means we will have to closely follow technologies such as note-taking, voice commands, hand gestures, etc., and enable scientists to use them in addition to their ELNs.”

Besides replicating all the functions of a paper lab notebook, ELNs offer a slew of benefits, only some of which are addressed in this article. More information can be found in a 2016 article by Ulrich Dirnagl and Ingo Przesdzing that provides tips on selecting an ELN, prerequisites for implementation, and a comprehensive comparison of different types of ELNs. In this age of multitasking and data overload, an ELN can help most biomedical researchers manage all their data and find plenty of time for their research too.

Next Step: Publishing Lab Notes in Real Time

In January, 20 pioneering scientists began putting their lab notes online, which they believe “will generate scientific ideas and discussions, avoid redundancy, foster collaborations, and accelerate progress.” The scientists are all part of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and the project is called “Open Lab Notebooks.” The website features profiles of the 20 researchers and their research interests, which include amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), epigenetic determinants of cancer, and brain tumors.

"It can take many years from the time a researcher makes a discovery until it is published," says Aled Edwards, Ph.D., a professor in University of Toronto’s department of molecular genetics and the head of the SGC. "These delays are too long considering the rate at which science is progressing today. How many roads were not taken in those years?"

Traditionally, scientists have guarded their lab notes, not disclosing important results until they can be published in peer-reviewed journals. In the publish-or-perish academic climate, researchers worry their ideas might be copied by others who might rush to publish first. But Edwards says there is evidence showing that competition, secrecy, and patents are bad for both patients and scientific progress.

Many scientists and organizations agree with Edwards, and traditional scientific publishing practices are being upended. Pre-publication websites for scientific papers are gaining traction. arXiv, an e-print repository for physics, math, and related disciplines, was the pioneer in providing greater research transparency. In the life sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Lab’s bioRxiv is growing rapidly.

In addition, advances in technology that enable sharing are disrupting the scientific publication industry. "Sharing may be a risk for an individual scientist, but it benefits the wider scientific community. Not only positive data need to be shared, but also experiments that don't work. If a particular line of inquiry is not working out, it's there for all to see, and other researchers can pull up stakes, and pursue another road."

Rachel Harding, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow with SGC, was one of the first to publish her notes in real time. She says that as a result of the collaboration enabled through Lab Scribbles, she has reached conclusions in a timeline not attainable previously. She’s a staunch advocate of the practice and encourages anyone interested in setting up their own open notebook to contact her through the Lab Scribbles website.

"I think the payback to the public that funds scientific research should be faster," Edwards concludes. "If we're going to find treatments for the toughest diseases that have proven out of our reach so far, we need more collaborators and fewer competitors. I cannot think of any scientific discipline in which transparency makes things worse."