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| {{About|the general software replacement for laboratory notebooks|other uses of the term "electronic laboratory notebook," "electronic lab notebook," or "ELN"|ELN}}<br />
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| [[File:AGBell Notebook.jpg|right|thumb|280px|Alexander Graham Bell's unpublished lab notebook, well before the invention of the ELN]]An '''electronic laboratory notebook''' (also known as '''electronic lab notebook''' or '''ELN''') is a [[software]] program or package designed to replace more traditional paper-based [[laboratory notebook]]s, which have for centuries been used by academic and industry researchers to document the procedures and results of experiments. ELNs in general are used by researchers to document, store, retrieve, and share fully electronic [[laboratory]] data and information—usually research-based—"in ways that meet all legal, regulatory, technical, and scientific requirements."<ref name="ZallTheNasc01">{{cite journal |title=The nascent paperless laboratory |journal=Chemical Innovation |author=Zall, M. |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=14–21 |year=2001 |url=http://pubsapp.acs.org/subscribe/archive/ci/31/i02/html/02zall.html}}</ref> A well-designed ELN is also meant to act as legal documentation as well as scientific documentation, and it may be used in a court of law as evidence. Similar to an inventor's notebook, the lab notebook is also often referred to in patent prosecution and intellectual property litigation. Modern electronic lab notebooks have the advantage of being easier to search and share, better supporting collaboration among many users, and being more secure than their paper counterparts. However, the transition from paper-based laboratory notebooks to electronic versions can present a number of challenges to organizations, particularly in regards to researchers rejecting their use as being too time-consuming to learn, too difficult to use, and insufficient to meeting their needs.
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| ==History of the ELN==
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| While some credit Dr. Keith Caserta with the concept of an electronic version of the laboratory notebook<ref name="EarlyELN">{{cite journal |title=Meeting Program Division of Chemical Education |journal=Chemical Information Bulletin |editor=Matthews, M. |volume=45 |issue=3 |page=64 |year=1993 |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5647/m1/48/}}</ref>, it's likely that others had similar early ideas on how to integrate computing into the process of laboratory note taking.<ref name="ELNLifeArch">{{cite web |url=http://web.me.com/evildrbob/Site/My_ELN_Life/My_ELN_Life.html |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110515133816/http://web.me.com/evildrbob/Site/My_ELN_Life/My_ELN_Life.html |title=My ELN Life |author=Rumpf, W. |publisher=Wolfgang Rumpf, Ph.D |archivedate=15 May 2011 |accessdate=08 March 2024}}</ref> Significant discussion concerning the transition from a pen-and-paper laboratory notebook to an electronic format was already in full swing in the early 1990s. During the 206th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in August of 1993, an entire day of the conference was dedicated to talking about "electronic notebooks" and ELNs.<ref name="MMattChemEd">{{cite journal |title=Meeting Program Division of Chemical Education |journal=Chemical Information Bulletin |editor=Matthews, M. |volume=45 |issue=3 |page=46 |year=1993 |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5647/m1/48/}}</ref> "A tetherless electronic equivalent of the paper notebook would be welcomed by the working scientist," noted Virginia Polytechnic Institute's Dr. Raymond E. Dessy for the conference.<ref name="EarlyELN" /> Dessy had in the mid-1980s begun postulating on the idea of an electronic notebook, and by 1994 he provided one of the first working examples of an ELN.<ref name="BormanELNRev">{{cite journal |url=https://pubs.acs.org/toc/cenear/72/21 |title=Electronic Laboratory Notebooks May Revolutionize Research Record Keeping |journal=Chemical Engineering News |author=Borman, S. |volume=72 |issue=21 |pages=10–20 |year=1994 |doi=10.1021/cen-v072n021.p010}}</ref>
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| By 1997, a special interest group called the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA) formed. Supported by 11 major pharmaceutical and chemical companies, the consortium worked with scientific software and hardware vendors to facilitate the creation of an ELN that met the technical and regulatory needs of its members.<ref name="LysakowskiTgeCikkav97">{{cite journal |title=The Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Consortium |journal=Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society |author=Lysakowski, R. |volume=6 |pages=2659–2661 |year=1997 |doi=10.1109/IEMBS.1997.756879}}</ref> The consortium at that time envisioned a collaborative ELN that "teams of scientists worldwide can use to reliably capture, manage, securely share, and permanently archive and retrieve all common data and records generated by research and development and testing labs."<ref name="ChandlerDocument97>{{cite book |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1m24k447#page-40 |title=Documenting the Biotechnology Industry in the San Francisco Bay Area |author=Chandler, R.L. |publisher=University of California - San Diego Libraries |page=40 |year=1997 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref> That same year development of an enterprise-wide ELN at Kodak's research facilities in England was in full swing. The Kodak ELN was "implemented as a collection of Lotus Notes databases and applications," making it arguably one of the first enterprise ELN solutions in use at the time.<ref name="McLaughlinImpact99">{{cite book |chapter=Chapter 11: The Wired Laboratory |title=Impact of Advances in Computing and Communications Technologies on Chemical Science and Technology: Report of a Workshop |author=McLaughlin, D.R. |publisher=National Academy Press |year=1999 |pages=164 |isbn=0309065771 |url=https://www.nap.edu/read/9591/chapter/15#164}}</ref>
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| In 1998 one of the first web-based versions of an ELN was introduced in the form of the University of Oregon's Virtual Notebook Environment (ViNE), "a platform-independent, web-based interface designed to support a range of scientific activities across distributed, heterogeneous computing platforms."<ref name="SkidmoreAProto98">{{cite journal |title=A Prototype Notebook-Based Environment for Computational Tools Computational Tools |journal=Proceedings of the 1998 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing |author=Skidmore, J.L.; Sottile, M.J.; Cuny, J.E.; Malony, A.D. |year=1998 |pages=22 |doi=10.1109/SC.1998.10031}}</ref> This innovation would go on to inspire vendors in the 2000s to develop web-based thin-client ELNs for laboratories everywhere. Yet it likely wasn't until the [[Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act]] (ESIGN) in June 2000 that the true legal implications of what a fully electronic laboratory notebook would have on the industry. If an ELN were to be responsible for providing validation during the patent processes and be valid for other types of [[audit]]s, a mechanism for authenticating the origin of the ideas would be necessary. The ESIGN act meant that electronic records could be authenticated and [[Electronic signature|digital signatures]] made legally binding, lending further relevancy to ELNs. Instead of searching through notebooks and piles of documents, printing material, and submitting thousands of pages for an FDA audit, ELN users could suddenly collate and submit electronic records, saving time and headaches.<ref name="ZallTheNasc01" />
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| Enthusiasm for ELNs began to pick up again in the early 2000s, with a strong case for further data integration into ELNs being made at the CENSA-supported International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC) conference in London during September 2004. During that conference the push for stronger [[data integration]] was made, with the base premise that "ELNs would improve corporate strategy by allowing information to be used more intelligently with the help of decision-support software."<ref name="ReesHowTo04">{{cite web |url=https://www.scientific-computing.com/feature/how-capture-data-share |title=How to capture data to share |author=Rees, P. |work=Scientific Computing World |publisher=Europa Science |date=01 November 2004 |accessdate=08 March 2024}}</ref> By early 2007, industry-specific ELNs were pushing growth in the market: ''Scientific Computing World'' estimated 83 percent of related organizations declaring interest in ELNs, with 43 percent of those organizations seriously considering an evaluation or purchase.<ref name="SciCompWorld1">{{cite web |url=https://www.scientific-computing.com/feature/state-eln-market |author=Elliot, M.H. |title=The state of the ELN Market |work=Scientific Computing World |publisher=Europa Science |date=01 December 2006 |accessdate=08 March 2024}}</ref>
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| Despite the beginnings of an economic downturn in the late 2000s, Atrium Research later estimated that the ELN's market potential was around $1.7 billion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atriumresearch.com/html/PR/pr060109.htm |title=Atrium Research Announces Fourth Edition of Landmark Report on Electronic Laboratory Notebooks |publisher=Atrium Research |date=02 June 2009 |accessdate=04 May 2011}}{{Dead link|date=March 2024}}</ref><ref name="LFinderAtrium07">{{cite web |url=http://www.limsfinder.com/BlogDetail.aspx?id=32062_0_3_0_C |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908031324/http://www.limsfinder.com/BlogDetail.aspx?id=32062_0_3_0_C |title=Atrium Research Announces the Third Edition of Landmark Report on Electronic Laboratory Notebooks |work=LIMSfinder.org |date=07 May 2007 |archivedate=08 September 2007 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref> During this time, scientists and academics—traditionally slow to adopt technological change—were gradually warming up to the benefits of an ELN. Academics in particular realized the problems the high turnover postdoc rate created in research laboratories. Postdocs would depart from the university, leaving [[PI]]s and directors scratching their heads on where the data ended up. ELNs changed that, allowing much more persistent data that can be found and referenced even after a postdoc departs.<ref name="DanceDigital10">{{cite journal |title=Digital Upgrade: How to choose your lab's next electronic lab notebook |journal=The Scientist |author=Dance, A. |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=71 |year=2010 |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/digital-upgrade-43342}}</ref>
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| The movement towards ELN integration into other laboratory functions during the 2000s eventually led to the blurring of what an ELN actually is. In early 2007, ''Scientific Computing World'' reported that the definition of an ELN varied among scientists, with 35 percent of them stating they were "clear about the difference between a [[[laboratory information management system]] (LIMS)] and an ELN."<ref name="SciCompWorld1" /> Today, it's possible to see in some vendors' offerings the formerly distinct entity that was an ELN to now be completely integrated into a LIMS. {{As of|2024}}, ELNs can be found as standalone solutions or as integrated modules of some other software like a LIMS, running as locally installed software or in the [[Cloud computing|cloud]] under the [[software as a service]] model.
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| As modern 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.<ref name="NussbeckTheLab14">{{cite journal |last=Nussbeck |first=Sara Y |last2=Weil |first2=Philipp |last3=Menzel |first3=Julia |last4=Marzec |first4=Bartlomiej |last5=Lorberg |first5=Kai |last6=Schwappach |first6=Blanche |year=2014 |title=The laboratory notebook in the 21 st century: The electronic laboratory notebook would enhance good scientific practice and increase research productivity |url=https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/embr.201338358 |journal=EMBO reports |language=en |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=631–634 |doi=10.15252/embr.201338358 |issn=1469-221X |pmc=PMC4197872 |pmid=24833749}}</ref><ref name="DirnaglAPocket16">{{cite journal |last=Dirnagl |first=Ulrich |last2=Przesdzing |first2=Ingo |date=2016-01-04 |title=A pocket guide to electronic laboratory notebooks in the academic life sciences |url=https://f1000research.com/articles/5-2/v1 |journal=F1000Research |language=en |volume=5 |pages=2 |doi=10.12688/f1000research.7628.1 |issn=2046-1402 |pmc=PMC4722687 |pmid=26835004}}</ref> With this greater need for an ELN, the ELN market is now predicted by Verified Market Research to reach nearly $795 million, below Atrium's late 2000s predictions but gaining ground again, with "the increasing need for data stored electronically ... imposing an assertive impact factor on the market."<ref name="VMSGlobal22">{{cite web |url=https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/electronic-lab-notebook-eln-market/ |title=Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) Market Size And Forecast |publisher=Verified Market Research |date=May 2022 |accessdate=08 March 2024}}</ref> However, as ELNs have become more complex, often taking on additional functionality found in other laboratory systems like the LIMS, there comes with it a greater chance of overall cost and complexity of use increasing, in turn negatively impacting overall adoption of the ELN by laboratorians.<ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" /> As such, complex modern ELNs arguably also need to be intuitive, easy-to-learn, and well-documented in order to better ensure full adoption.<ref name="HigginsConsider22">{{Cite journal |last=Higgins |first=Stuart G. |last2=Nogiwa-Valdez |first2=Akemi A. |last3=Stevens |first3=Molly M. |date=2022-02 |title=Considerations for implementing electronic laboratory notebooks in an academic research environment |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-021-00645-8 |journal=Nature Protocols |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=179–189 |doi=10.1038/s41596-021-00645-8 |issn=1754-2189}}</ref>
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| ==Regulations and legal aspects==
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| The laboratory accreditation criteria found in the [[ISO 17025]] standard needs to be considered for the protection and computer backup of electronic records{{citation needed|opinion-based statement}}. These criteria can be found specifically in clause 4.13.1.4 of the standard.
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| Electronic lab notebooks used for development or research in regulated industries, such as medical devices or pharmaceuticals, are expected to comply with U.S. [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA) regulations related to software validation.<ref name="21CFR11">{{cite web |url=https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfCFR/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=11&showFR=1 |title=The Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 Part 11 |publisher=U.S. Food and Drug Administration |date=01 April 2010 |accessdate=29 September 2017}}</ref> The purpose of the regulations is to ensure the integrity of the entries in terms of time, authorship, and content. Unlike ELNs for patent protection, the FDA is not concerned with patent interference proceedings, but rather with avoidance of falsification.
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| Typical provisions related to software validation are included in the medical device regulations at 21 CFR 820 (et seq.) and [[21 CFR Part 11|21 CFR 11]]. Essentially, the requirements are that the software has been designed and implemented to be suitable for its intended purposes. Evidence to show that this is the case is often provided by a software requirements specification (SRS) that lays out the intended uses and needs that the ELN will meet. The SRS typically includes one or more testing protocols that, when followed, demonstrate that the ELN meets the requirements of the specification and that the requirements are satisfied under worst-case conditions. Security, audit trails, prevention of unauthorized changes without substantial collusion of otherwise independent personnel (i.e. those having no interest in the content of the ELN such as independent quality unit personnel) are all fundamental to the ELN. Finally, one or more reports demonstrating the results of the testing in accordance with the predefined protocols are required prior to release of the ELN software for use. If the reports show that the software failed to satisfy any of the SRS requirements, then [[corrective and preventive action]] (CAPA) must be undertaken and documented. Such CAPA may extend to minor software revisions, or changes in architecture or major revisions. CAPA activities need to be documented as well.<ref name="FDA_CAPA">{{cite web |url=https://www.fda.gov/corrective-and-preventive-actions-capa |title=Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) |publisher=U.S. Food and Drug Administration |date=28 June 2010 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
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| ==Modern features of an ELN==
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| ELNs are generally divided into two categories<ref name="SciCompWorld1" />:
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| * A "specific" ELN contains features designed to work within specific applications, scientific instrumentation, or data types.
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| * A cross-disciplinary or "generic" ELN is designed to support access to all data and information that needs to be recorded in a lab notebook.
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| Among these two general categories are ELNs that capture two particular markets: individual researchers and group research teams. ELNs can be tailored to one or both types of markets, with both groups and individuals benefiting from the ELN's inherent ability to add structure to research records. Groups utilizing an ELN typically require two additional abilities: to share research data and communicate about their research.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.researchspace.com/electronic-lab-notebook/blog/lab/?tag=record |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929193010/http://www.researchspace.com/electronic-lab-notebook/blog/lab/?tag=record |title=Are electronic lab notebooks for individuals or groups? |author=Macneil, R. |work=The electronic lab notebook blog |publisher=ResearchSpace/Axiope |date=11 November 2010 |archivedate=29 September 2017 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
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| Modern features include, but are not limited to<ref name="MacneilWhatAre10">{{cite web |url=http://www.researchspace.com/elnblog/?paged=4 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929193448/http://www.researchspace.com/elnblog/?paged=4 |title=What are electronic lab notebooks for? |author=Macneil, R. |publisher=ResearchSpace/Axiope |date=06 October 2010 |archivedate=29 September 2017 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="DuttonLabNote06">{{cite web |url=https://www.genengnews.com/magazine/lab-notebooks-offer-efficiency-gains/ |title=Lab Notebooks Offer Efficiency Gains |author=Dutton, G. |work=Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News |publisher=Mary Ann Liebert, Inc |date=01 December 2006 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="BruceALook08">{{cite web |url=https://www.scientificcomputing.com/article/2002/12/look-state-electronic-lab-notebook-technology |title=A Look at the State of Electronic Lab Notebook Technology |author=Bruce, S. |work=Scientific Computing |publisher=Advantage Business Media |date=09 October 2008 |accessdate=27 September 2017}}</ref>{{dead link}}<ref name="KanzaElectronic17">{{cite journal |title=Electronic lab notebooks: Can they replace paper? |journal=Journal of Cheminformatics |author=Kanza, S.; Willoughby, C.; Gibbins, N. et al. |volume=9 |pages=31 |year=2017 |doi=10.1186/s13321-017-0221-3 |pmc=PMC5443717}}</ref>:
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| * importation of data which has already been captured elsewhere
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| * direct recording of data in various forms like text, images, and tables
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| * ability to search for and reuse documented information
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| * lending of structure to data and information through the use of preformatted or customizable templates which include a range of field types
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| * creation of links between records, including reference managers and other notebooks
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| * storage of fully searchable records in a secure database format, with automatic backup
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| * inclusion of a messaging system for better collaboration
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| * inclusion of safety data, including flags for dangerous chemicals
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| * protection of the integrity of both data and process in a secure yet flexible environment, all while allowing for process changes
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| * generation of secure forms that accept laboratory data input via a computing device and/or laboratory equipment
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| * accommodation for networked or wireless communications
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| * accommodation of a scheduling option for routine procedures such as equipment qualification and study-related timelines
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| * configuration of qualification requirements
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| ==ELN vendors==
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| See the [[ELN vendor]] page for a list of ELN vendors past and present.
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| == Further reading ==
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| * {{cite journal |title=Electronic lab notebooks: Can they replace paper? |journal=Journal of Cheminformatics |author=Kanza, S.; Willoughby, C.; Gibbins, N. et al. |volume=9 |pages=31 |year=2017 |doi=10.1186/s13321-017-0221-3 |pmc=PMC5443717}}
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
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| <!---Place all category tags here-->
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| [[Category:Laboratory informatics]]
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| [[Category:Software systems]]
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