Electronic Laboratory Notebooks Are Revolutionizing How We Do Research
Saying goodbye to old-school data
Nearly 40% of college students report taking notes electronically. What if this statistic began to make its way into science?
Those who extensively work in research know how much of a struggle it can be store data collected. Whether it’s organization, maintenance, or simply finding a more efficient way to record data, applications that allow for researchers to effectively record, store, and share data are very much needed in today’s day and age.
First introduced in 1997, the standard Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) attempted to help scientists digitize their research data, but was ultimately not picked up too heavily by science due to their high cost, lack of ease to use, and unaccesibility. In short: ELNs were not as efficient enough in functionality to make life any easier for researchers.
Fast forward to today, there are a number of startups and companies who’ve worked to alleviate the issues and uncertainties associated with the general ELN.
These dynamic non-standard ELNs have attempted to diffrentiate themselves in the promotion of ELNs that allow researchers to efficiently track protocols, organize collected data, and work together.
About 17% of lost experimental data comes from recording results from labs in paper-based notebooks. When researchers are collecting paper data on multiple sheets, the mere loss of a notebook can be devastating to a project. This is not only stressful, time wasting, and expensive, but poses grave repeatability threats.
Modern ELN startups provide clean and clear concrete solutions to the anxieties of paper data collection.
Startups and companies like Hivebench, SciCord, LabArchives, and Benchling claim to offer more concrete electronic lab notebook solutions. For instance, Benchling claims to be “more than an ELN”, utilizing cloud-based notebooks to reduce data entry time by 85%. After testing out a number of ELNs, Zebrafish researcher, Christoph Seiler, reports settling on Benchling due to it being most “attractive and well-organized.” Some researchers prefer ELN’s like SciNote due to it’s “flexible, flow-chart-like structure”, while others enjoy being able to see other users’ activity in the Labguru ELN.
No matter the “modern” ELN, there’s no debate that these companies are working hard to make Electronic Lab Notebooks the mainstream form of data recording. Over the past 10 years, over 15 ELN Startups have taken off — each trying to find something “different” to bring to the table.
ELN startups like Hivebench have put a lot of emphasis on safe collaboration, allowing co-researchers to have real-time recorded conversations and comments that can be looked back upon for research purposes. This is much-needed as it’s well known within the science community the number of issues associated with collaboration and data-record history, risking concerns with security, funders, and even the FDA. Research collaboration through Hivebench allows for mandates to be seamlessly exchanged through structured templates, mitigating risks of legal or corporate drama for researchers.
Though ELNs have posed as a great solution to the inconveniences of paper-based note taking, it’s important to keep in mind the highly personal nature of lab recording. No two scientists are the same, so it makes sense that no matter how many new applications and technologies arise to make their jobs easier, some are simply used to a routine way of doing data research. Some people have suggested that scientists should move into a hybrid frontier of data electronic data collection and paper-based note-taking.
Despite the reluctancies, ELNs have in fact started to make their way into thousands of laboratories around the world, including places like The University of Pennsylvania, The Danforth Center, and UC Davis.
Top-5 most popular ELN Companies
- LabWare LIMS
- Benchling
- SciNote
- LabVantage
- STARLIMS
Moving forward, there’s no doubt that ELNs will continue to improve and modernization research such that it makes its way into the next generations. With time efficient, faster, safer, and more collaborative research methods, the use of ELNs will catalyse progress in modern day scientific research for a better tommorow.
