Electronic lab notebooks: Can they replace paper?
Where are electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) going, and what do they lack? How does data from several user groups paint the picture of the ELN and its functionality and shortcomings?
In this 2017 paper published in Journal of Cheminformatics, researchers from the University of Southampton and BioSistemika examine the market and users of ELNs/paper laboratory notebooks, intent of identifying areas ELNs could be improved.
They conclude that optimally there should be “an ELN environment that can serve as an interface between paper lab notebooks and the electronic documents that scientists create, one that is interoperable and utilizes semantic web and cloud technologies, particularly given that “current technology is such that it is desirable that ELN solutions work alongside paper for the foreseeable future.”
