User:Shawndouglas/sandbox/sublevel12

Sandbox begins below

[[File:|right|350px]] Title: Is there a benefit to utilizing both a LIMS and an ELN in the lab?

Author for citation: Shawn E. Douglas

License for content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Publication date: March 2023

The ELN and what it does outside the scope of a LIMS

To answer the question, knowledge of what an ELN does and what it addresses outside of a LIMS is important. An ELN is a modern electronic equivalent of the traditional paper-based laboratory notebook, which historically has served as a collection of scribblings—often with individual, regional, or temporal idiosyncratic styles of "subjectivity, unruliness, and privacy"—concerning the notes and protocols of one or more particular scientific research endeavors. In recent times, these scribblings have become more recognizably organized and thorough as a necessary part of presenting all the details of experiments, observations, and analyses such that the results can be reproduced and verified by peers in the scientific community (often referred to as part of a broader "reproducibility crisis"). As laboratory research has increasingly incorporated more digital sources of data and information from instruments and other sources, labs conducting laboratory notebook-assisted research today—in both academic and industrial environments—have had to necessarily look at old paper notebook formats as antiquated and incompatible with modern research methods and increasingly digitalized workflows.

As a modern substitute for the paper-based laboratory notebook, the ELN at its core intends to similarly provide a means to document experiments, observations, and analyses but in a more organized, consistent, readable, searchable, and shareable way. Because it is software, additional thought has gone into the development of an ELN to allow users to do their research more effectively while integrating with other digital instruments and software solutions to capture and manage data and information closer to real-time. As a result, today's ELNs take many shapes and forms, many of them being developed to address the needs of specific research activities, such as DNA sequencing or chemical analysis. However, the sheer number of research use cases and workflows across numerous disciplines and experiment types, as well as varying vendor approaches to ELN development, can lead to difficulty in finding the right ELN for a given lab, even leading some to develop their own custom ELNs, often as an extension of some other piece of software like a knowledge management system, course management system, or note-taking application.

Despite the diverse needs of a wide variety of academic and industrial research labs in regards to ELNs, there are some functional aspects that stand out as being somewhat unique to the software, even when compared to common laboratory informatics solutions like a LIMS or laboratory information system (LIS). This includes:

• direct real-time recording of data and information in various (standard) formats like text, images, tables, chromatograms, and raw data files;
• robust support for tagging, searching, and reusing data, information, files, etc.;
• support for standard vocabularies and metadata schemes;
• lending of structure to data and information through the use of preformatted or customizable templates with drag-and-drop support;
• flexible creation of links between records, including reference managers and other notebooks;
• group, project, and experiment management;
• import and export functionality, particularly in standard, portable file formats;
• storage of fully searchable records in a secure database format, with automatic backup;
• inclusion of messaging and commenting functionality for better collaboration;
• inclusion of safety data, including flags for dangerous chemicals;
• data integrity and security tools like electronic signatures, time-stamped audit logs, controlled access levels, version control, automated import of instrument data, and archiving capabilities;
• generation of secure forms that accept laboratory data input real-time via a computing device and/or laboratory equipment (i.e., integration);
• accommodation of a scheduling option for routine procedures such as equipment qualification and study-related timelines;
• support for standard chemical, genetic, and other molecular libraries, visualization, and nomenclature formats, e.g., LaTeX; and
• inventory management of instruments, reagents, samples, etc. (usually associated with a LIMS or separate system, but useful as an integrated option within an ELN).

Note that the more functionality bolted on to an ELN, the greater chance of overall cost and complexity of use increasing, in turn negatively impacting overall adoption of the ELN by laboratorians. The ELN also needs to be intuitive, easy-to-learn, and well-documented in order to better ensure full adoption.

Pairing a LIMS and ELN together

After browsing some of the ELN functionality listed above, comparisons to some types of LIMS functionality become easier. From instrument integration and data integrity mechanisms to equipment scheduling and inventory management, the LIMS and ELN can most certainly share functionality. This can be viewed as highly desirable by some organizations, while others may be frustrated by the introduction of a similar standalone system and an impediment to the original desire for the time-saving benefits of digitizing and integrating workflows and systems with a LIMS. After all, it's even more work to learn how to effectively use another system like an ELN after spending time and energy on learning to use a LIMS.

So why would a lab pair an ELN with a LIMS? Is there a benefit to utilizing both? First, as noted prior, both academic and industrial research laboratories are the typical users of an ELN, with adoption by academic research labs slightly lagging industrial research labs. The ELN is a replacement for the laboratory notebook, typically used in research settings to document research workflows. (While there may be legitimate non-research use cases for an ELN, it is beyond the scope of this article to address them, and thus this article assumes research-based use.) Use cases of an ELN include:

1. those working strictly in R&D, focusing on innovation and proof-of-concept delivery as easily and efficiently as possible in order to get to market faster;
2. those working beyond strict innovation and proof-of-concept, taking those ideas into more demanding production-based experimentation, where processes and procedures must strictly be followed; and
3. advanced, multi-department research and production environments where integrated systems management is essential to ensuring a clean continuum of data and information across an entire product lifecycle, as well as more timely and efficient workflows.

In the first case, a LIMS is most likely not necessary, with the ELN providing the most benefit. It's only with perhaps the second case and often the third case that pairing an ELN with a LIMS begins to make some sense, particularly if there's a greater need for sample traceability and management/enforcement of standard operating procedures or test methods. And even then multiple considerations need to be made. Additionally, these considerations may vary based upon the existing technology environment at the lab, e.g., if the lab is moving in full from a paper-based workflow to an electronic workflow that intends to incorporate both systems.

Those considerations made, there indeed can be some benefit to using both a LIMS and an ELN in the lab. First, ...

• https://ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/10.1.163
• https://eln.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/825/2019/09/Output-Final-ELN-Survey-Report-September-2019.pdf
• https://web.archive.org/web/20231208184311/https://astrixinc.com/best-practices-for-electronic-laboratory-notebook-implementation-in-rd-labs/
• https://www.pistoiaalliance.org/news/seed-project-unlocks-value-of-data-in-electronic-lab-notebooks/