Concerns over reproducibility, as well as more stringent requirements on data management from funding agencies, have motivated improvements in the documentation of lab work. Recent trends in research have also created a demand for such changes: as scientists deal with increasing volumes of data, gluing printed results into a paper notebook becomes more archaic. “It does become very confusing.” And many researchers simply lack the time or motivation to make the move to ELNs.īut today’s early-career researchers, who have grown up with digital technology, tend to expect - and to embrace - electronic solutions.
“It’s just insane,” says Sian Jones, a petroleum engineer at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. But the ELN market encompasses considerable variety a study conducted in 2016 by the University of Southampton, UK, identified 72 active products ( S. ELNs comprise software that helps researchers to document experiments, and that often has features such as protocol templates, collaboration tools, support for electronic signatures and the ability to manage the lab inventory. One barrier to uptake is the wide range of products available. It has yet to happen - but more and more scientists are taking the plunge. Since at least the 1990s, articles on technology have predicted the imminent, widespread adoption of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) by researchers.
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