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| <div class="nonumtoc">__TOC__</div> | | <div class="nonumtoc">__TOC__</div> |
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| '''Title''': ''Is there a benefit to utilizing both a LIMS and an ELN in the lab?''
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| '''Author for citation''': Shawn E. Douglas
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| '''License for content''': [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International]
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| '''Publication date''': March 2023
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| ==Introduction==
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| ==The ELN and what it does outside the scope of a LIMS==
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| 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"<ref name="HolmesArchRework03">{{cite book |title=Reworking the Bench - Research Notebooks in the History of Science |chapter=Introduction |series=Archimedes - New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology |editor=Holmes, F.L.; Renn, J.; Rheinberger, H.-J. |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |volume=7 |pages=vii–xv |year=2003 |isbn=9780306481529 |doi=10.1007/0-306-48152-9}}</ref>—concerning the notes and protocols of one or more particular scientific research endeavors.<ref name="HolmesArchRework03" /><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> 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").<ref name="NussbeckTheLab14" /><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><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hunter |first=Philip |date=2017-09 |title=The reproducibility “crisis”: Reaction to replication crisis should not stifle innovation |url=https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/embr.201744876 |journal=EMBO reports |language=en |volume=18 |issue=9 |pages=1493–1496 |doi=10.15252/embr.201744876 |issn=1469-221X |pmc=PMC5579390 |pmid=28794201}}</ref> As laboratory research has increasingly incorporated more digital sources of data and information from instruments and other sources, labs conducting research today 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" /><ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" />
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| 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]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barillari |first=Caterina |last2=Ottoz |first2=Diana S. M. |last3=Fuentes-Serna |first3=Juan Mariano |last4=Ramakrishnan |first4=Chandrasekhar |last5=Rinn |first5=Bernd |last6=Rudolf |first6=Fabian |date=2016-02-15 |title=openBIS ELN-LIMS: an open-source database for academic laboratories |url=https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/32/4/638/1743839 |journal=Bioinformatics |language=en |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=638–640 |doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btv606 |issn=1367-4811 |pmc=PMC4743625 |pmid=26508761}}</ref> or chemical analysis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tremouilhac |first=Pierre |last2=Nguyen |first2=An |last3=Huang |first3=Yu-Chieh |last4=Kotov |first4=Serhii |last5=Lütjohann |first5=Dominic Sebastian |last6=Hübsch |first6=Florian |last7=Jung |first7=Nicole |last8=Bräse |first8=Stefan |date=2017-12 |title=Chemotion ELN: an Open Source electronic lab notebook for chemists in academia |url=https://jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13321-017-0240-0 |journal=Journal of Cheminformatics |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=54 |doi=10.1186/s13321-017-0240-0 |issn=1758-2946 |pmc=PMC5612905 |pmid=29086216}}</ref> 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<ref name=":0">{{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><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Loveluck, J. |date=08 October 2020 |title=Finding the Right Electronic Lab Notebook with the Corey Lab |work=Harvard Research Data Management |url=https://datamanagement.hms.harvard.edu/news/finding-right-electronic-lab-notebook-corey-lab |publisher=Harvard Medical School |accessdate=05 March 2024}}</ref>, even leading some to develop their own custom ELNs, often as an extension of some other piece of software like a knowledge management system<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Khan |first=Arshad M. |last2=Hahn |first2=Joel D. |last3=Cheng |first3=Wei-Cheng |last4=Watts |first4=Alan G. |last5=Burns |first5=Gully A. P. C. |date=2006 |title=NeuroScholar\'s Electronic Laboratory Notebook and Its Application to Neuroendocrinology |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1385/NI:4:2:139 |journal=Neuroinformatics |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=139–162 |doi=10.1385/NI:4:2:139 |issn=1539-2791 |pmc=PMC4476904 |pmid=16845166}}</ref>, course management system<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cardenas, M. |year=2014 |title=An Implementation of Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN) Using a Learning Management System Platform in an Undergraduate Experimental Engineering Course |url=https://peer.asee.org/an-implementation-of-electronic-laboratory-notebooks-eln-using-a-learning-management-system-platform-in-an-undergraduate-experimental-engineering-course.pdf |format=PDF |journal=Proceedings of the 121st ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition |pages=24.164.1–16 |at=9040}}</ref>, or note-taking application.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guerrero |first=Santiago |last2=López-Cortés |first2=Andrés |last3=García-Cárdenas |first3=Jennyfer M. |last4=Saa |first4=Pablo |last5=Indacochea |first5=Alberto |last6=Armendáriz-Castillo |first6=Isaac |last7=Zambrano |first7=Ana Karina |last8=Yumiceba |first8=Verónica |last9=Pérez-Villa |first9=Andy |last10=Guevara-Ramírez |first10=Patricia |last11=Moscoso-Zea |first11=Oswaldo |date=2019-05-09 |editor-last=Ouellette |editor-first=Francis |title=A quick guide for using Microsoft OneNote as an electronic laboratory notebook |url=https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006918 |journal=PLOS Computational Biology |language=en |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=e1006918 |doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006918 |issn=1553-7358 |pmc=PMC6508581 |pmid=31071077}}</ref>
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| 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<ref name="NussbeckTheLab14" /><ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kanza |first=Samantha |last2=Willoughby |first2=Cerys |last3=Gibbins |first3=Nicholas |last4=Whitby |first4=Richard |last5=Frey |first5=Jeremy Graham |last6=Erjavec |first6=Jana |last7=Zupančič |first7=Klemen |last8=Hren |first8=Matjaž |last9=Kovač |first9=Katarina |date=2017-12 |title=Electronic lab notebooks: can they replace paper? |url=https://jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13321-017-0221-3 |journal=Journal of Cheminformatics |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=31 |doi=10.1186/s13321-017-0221-3 |issn=1758-2946 |pmc=PMC5443717 |pmid=29086051}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Knippenberg, R. |date=30 June 2018 |title=Best Practices for Electronic Laboratory Notebook Implementation in R&D Labs |work=Astrix Insights |url=https://astrixinc.com/best-practices-for-electronic-laboratory-notebook-implementation-in-rd-labs/ |publisher=Astrix, Inc |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208184311/https://astrixinc.com/best-practices-for-electronic-laboratory-notebook-implementation-in-rd-labs/ |archivedate=08 December 2023 |accessdate=05 March 2024}}</ref>:
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| * direct real-time recording of data and information in various (standard) formats like text, images, tables, chromatograms, and raw data files
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| * robust support for tagging, searching, and reusing data, information, files, etc.
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| * support for standard vocabularies and [[metadata]] schemes
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| * lending of structure to data and information through the use of preformatted or customizable templates with drag-and-drop support
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| * flexible creation of links between records, including reference managers and other notebooks
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| * group, project, and experiment management
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| * import and export functionality, particularly in standard, portable file formats
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| * storage of fully searchable records in a secure database format, with automatic backup
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| * inclusion of messaging and commenting functionality for better collaboration
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| * inclusion of safety data, including flags for dangerous chemicals
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| * 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
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| * generation of secure forms that accept laboratory data input real-time via a computing device and/or laboratory equipment (i.e., integration)
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| * accommodation of a scheduling option for routine procedures such as equipment qualification and study-related timelines
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| * support for standard chemical, genetic, and other molecular libraries and visualization formats, e.g., LaTeX
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| * inventory management of instruments, reagents, samples, etc. (usually associated with a LIMS, but useful as a standalone option within an ELN<ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" /><ref name=":1" />)
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| 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.<ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" /> The ELN also needs to be intuitive, easy-to-learn, and well-documented in order to better ensure full adoption.<ref name=":0" />
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| ==Pairing a LIMS and ELN together==
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| 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.<ref name="DirnaglAPocket16" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> This can be viewed as highly desirable by some organizations<ref name=":1" />, 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.<ref name=":0" /> Here, and in other areas of ELN adoption (discussed below), in an environment where there already is a LIMS, multiple considerations need to be made by the laboratory considering the addition of a LIMS. (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.)
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| ... considerations ...
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| Those considerations made, there indeed can be some benefit to using both a LIMS and an ELN in the lab. First, ...
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| *https://www.limswiki.org/index.php/LII:The_Application_of_Informatics_to_Scientific_Work:_Laboratory_Informatics_for_Newbies#Expanding_the_research_team
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| *https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4197872/
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| *https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-021-00645-8
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| *https://ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/10.1.163
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| *https://datamanagement.hms.harvard.edu/news/finding-right-electronic-lab-notebook-corey-lab
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| *https://eln.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/825/2019/09/Output-Final-ELN-Survey-Report-September-2019.pdf
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| *https://web.archive.org/web/20231208184311/https://astrixinc.com/best-practices-for-electronic-laboratory-notebook-implementation-in-rd-labs/
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| *https://www.monash.edu/researchinfrastructure/eresearch/capabilities/electronic-lab-notebook/about/why-switch
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| *https://iupui.libguides.com/IUSMELNToolkit/OrganizingNotebook
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| *https://www.pistoiaalliance.org/news/seed-project-unlocks-value-of-data-in-electronic-lab-notebooks/
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| *https://research.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/RCT%20content/ReaDI%20Program/tutorial_LabNotebook_V9.pdf
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| *https://www.rockefeller.edu/markus-library/uploads/www.rockefeller.edu/sites/207/2019/05/Electronic-Notebooks-CCTS.pdf
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| ==Conclusion==
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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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