The advantages of a dedicated Electronic Lab Notebook

If you are thinking about using an Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) instead of the traditional paper-based lab notebooks, it may be tempting to use a popular app with which you and your team are familiar. This will provide an immediate fix to the problem of storing your data, files, and experimental procedures electronically because there will be no steep learning curve. For instance, more team members may be already familiar with the note-taking app and, therefore, can quickly start using it for their lab notes. One app that we commonly hear about when discussing the use of general-purpose online notebooks with scientists is Evernote. There are, however, many alternative solutions with slight variations in their features that may be worth comparing if you are considering adopting a general-purpose note-taking app. We have also seen researchers use other note-taking apps, such as Microsoft Word, as their digital lab notebooks.

All of the above-mentioned solutions are great for day-to-day note-taking, but they all fall short of meeting the demands of a research lab. When it comes to collaboration, experimental protocol creation, experiment tracking, document control, e-signatures, team management, project management, and storing files in the context of individual experiments, none of the apps mentioned above can meet those needs.

The advent of specialized Electronic Lab Notebooks solutions appears to have caused a spike in the number of laboratory users switching to a digital notebook. But adoption of these solutions by the academic and research industries has been slow. I will write a separate post dedicated to ELN software advantages. The question I am addressing here is why do scientists choose a general-purpose note-taking app despite the availability of more capable ELN solutions. After all, ELN software like LabLog is created specifically to meet the needs of research laboratories. Perhaps, the answer is familiarity with the app. As mentioned above, selecting a general-purpose app provides an immediate fix in terms of transitioning to a digital note-taking system.

Choosing to switch from paper to an Electronic Lab Notebook may appear to have higher risks with a steep learning curve. Also, the long-term effects on your lab notes and note-taking habits need to be considered carefully. The purpose of this post is not to suggest a single solution, because in your particular case Microsoft Word or Evernote may be sufficient. Before selecting a note-taking app, however, you may want to consider the following factors:

• Will this app encourage me to take notes consistently for the rest of my research career?
• Does the app promote good note-taking techniques?
• Are document sharing and cloud backups secure and reliable?
• Does the app facilitate faster scientific note-taking?
• Can I easily record scientific symbols (e.g., genotypes) or drawings (e.g., plasmids)?
• Can I easily collaborate and track projects progress?
• Can I create experimental protocols and use them as templates for recording experiments?

These are only a few of the questions that you may ask when considering the ideal software for your lab notes.

Conclusion

A general-purpose solution, such as Evernote or MS Word, may appear ideal when starting a new Electronic Lab Notebook. However, dedicated software that is built for the needs of research scientists can provide tremendous long-term benefits.