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Adopting Digital Notebooks and Electronic Laboratory Notebooks

There are a variety of reasons why individuals or organisations may be reluctant to make a move from paper notebooks to Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs). This topic discusses some of the barriers to the adoption of ELNs and how these might be overcome.

Usability and human factors​

Paper notebooks are very flexible and enable their users to capture notes through handwriting, by drawing images, and by creating annotations. Paper notebooks are also very portable, easy to use and understand, and never have the common problems we face using technology - they need a network connection, don't run out of battery and don't crash! A challenge with digital notebooks, and ELNs in particular as they are more rigid, more complex, less portable, and more difficult to use.

Some digital notebooks and ELNs do provide functionality that helps to mitigate these problems, and in some cases even provide improvements over paper. For example, tablet-based notebooks often enable the use of a stylus so that notes and images can be created and captured in a more natural way. Some of these include character recognition so that words can be identified and allow the storage of the written format and a searchable text format for the notes. Other notebooks enable information to be captured in other ways, for example by taking photographs or through capturing voice notes. These can support users with disabilities or in situations where the user might not be able to use a keyboard or pen.

Many digital notebooks and ELNs are cloud-based or server-based meaning that they can be accessed from multiple locations. This means that the notebook can be used on different devices, and can help with avoiding damage or loss to a notebook whilst it is being moved around, or by enabling the use of hardware that can stay in a single location, and avoid contamination inside and outside the lab.

Usability of the software is always a challenge, but more simple generic digital notebooks can be used where time or training to learn to use more complex ELN software is not available, for example with students.

Overcoming resistance to change​

Students, researchers, and educators may be reluctant to switch from familiar methods to new systems. Concerns can include the perception that the software may require extra effort, be difficult to use, and less flexible than the way they currently work. It is often more difficult to persuade more senior or experienced staff members to change practices and the adoption of an ELN can be most disruptive to these users. Making use of trials and pilots can help with the process by giving the chance for some users to try out the new system and to share their experiences with the wider group or department. It is often helpful to target these activities at students or more junior staff who do not already have a familiar way of working. Seeking volunteers can be a way to find users who are more open to trying the new technology and providing useful feedback to help with choosing the right solution.

Some organisations transition from paper to digital notebooks by maintaining both a paper and a digital notebook. This gives the opportunity to assess whether the digital notebook provides the functionality required, and that nothings gets lost whilst it is under test. However, it is a significant additional burden for the testers of the notebook and there can be a temptation to capture full notes in paper and only a summary of the work in the digital notebook.

There needs to be collective buy-in and leadership support to enable successful adoption of digital notebooks and ELNs. Often this success can hinge on widespread institutional or departmental implementation to encourage widespread trust and support for the software.

Cost​

Cost, or the perceived cost, is a major barrier for adoption of ELNs. There are often hidden costs involved in implementing digital notebook and ELN systems, especially for groups and departments where costs may go beyond just the cost of the software license. Costs of licenses can increase significantly with larger numbers of users, and the ongoing costs of these need to be considered. For academic organisations there are often options to purchase academic licenses that can substantially reduce the cost. Generic notebooks, for example, Microsoft OneNote, and some ELNs may come bundled with other software that is already in use in your organisation or may be available at a discounted price, so it always a good idea to investigate what might be available.

It is important to be sure that you are making the correct choice of digital notebook or ELN for your organisation, and many digital notebook and ELN providers offer a free trial license or demo version that you can use to test if it meets your requirements. For the high-end commercial ELNs, it is usually possible to organisation demonstrations of the functionality that they provide for the same purpose.

The various costs need to be weighed before deciding if using digital notebooks and ELNs is right for an organisation, let alone before deciding which is the right ELN. Some digital notebooks and ELNs are free or provide free versions, and there are several open source options that can be used and adapted to meet the needs of your organisation. The balance between relatively low costs to use and the likely lower levels of support available from the developers also needs to be considered.

Hardware and infrastructure​

If you are moving directly from paper to digital notebooks it is less likely that you already have the necessary infrastructure and hardware that you need to run the notebook. For example, you may want to install computers or tablet devices into your laboratories. If the notebook is cloud or server-based then you may need to ensure that you have an adequate network or Internet connection in the laboratory. This may require additional infrastructure to be installed.

If you are hosting the digital notebook or ELN on your own computing infrastructure there will be server costs, and staff costs involved in installing and configuring the service. The more users that use the service, concerns about performance and load balancing may become important.

Back-up, maintenance, and administration​

When more than one user is using a digital notebook, it is likely that staff time is required to administer and look after the service. For example, to create accounts, define and control access, and deal with database administration. There may be hardware, software, and staff costs associated with requirements to back up the data that is hosted in the notebook. Even if the service is cloud-based you should consider how you want to protect your data in case of loss of the service or a decision to move to a new service vendor in the future. Software is constantly being updated, and there will staff and potentially hardware costs to consider for keeping the software adequately maintained, for example adding patches, dealing with routine updates, and migrating content for major releases.

Training​

Depending on the users and the choice of digital notebook or ELNs is likely to determine how much training is required and who receives it. For a complex ELN, training may be needed for IT Support and infrastructure staff, administrators, and end users.

Different disciplinary needs​

In a perfect scenario, an ELN would be tailored to meet the diverse requirements of all users. However, such a solution would inevitably be very large, very complex, and costly. For this reason, many of the more comprehensive and feature-rich ELNs are primarily targeted at industrial applications. For academic institutions this can be much harder as different domains, and even subdomains, can have very different needs for each other. In some cases it may make sense to choose a full-featured ELN that can cater to multiple departments, and in others it may make more sense to let individual groups to choose the digital notebook or ELN that best meets their specific needs. It is important to ensure that all stakeholders get the opportunity to highlight their needs - making a bad choice at an organisational level could be costly and counter-productive. If a digital notebook is too rigid and does not allow researchers to record the information that they want to record, it can actually disrupt the research process and cause important information to be failed to be recorded at all.

Some digital notebooks enable the creation of plugins or other ways to extend or adapt the functionality that they provide. This means that even if the software does not already have a feature that is important to a specific sub-discipline, that it could be developed or bought from another provider.

Data security​

Anxiety can also be present about potential unauthorised access to the notebook, whether this is due to concerns about sensitive data, data theft, and being scooped by competitors. Despite the fact that the majority of digital notebooks can be configured to restrict access to authorised users only, users may also have concerns about malicious or accidental access by others if their data is stored in the cloud. Solutions to these concerns can be to run the notebook software on a local server or other computing infrastructure and to select providers who provide security-focused features.

Longevity of the notebook​

Paper notebooks have a life-span of decades or more, whereas software is constantly being changed and updated. ELN vendors come and go over time, as some get bought, some go out of business, and new items are added to the market. There is a reasonable concern that a chosen ELN solution may stop being supported, or for cloud-based systems may disappear completely. It is important to make ensure that there are ways to extract the notes and data from the notebook so that it is still accessible if software becomes unavailable or if different software is chosen in the future. Many digital notebooks and ELNs enable users to export the notes in PDF format, but having the option to export in open or standard formats can make it much more likely the data can be reused, and potentially even imported into new software at a later time.

Time​

Implementing a digital notebook or ELN solution for multiple users will inevitably take time. Time is required to plan properly, to install and configure the solution, time is required to set up notebooks and other features of the software (for example, to create standard templates and access policies for users), and time is required to train staff and users to use it. For complex, department or institution-wide solutions, time is also needed to acquire hardware, set up infrastructure, and recruit staff. All organisations have some level of bureaucracy, that can slow things down, but having a good plan for what is required and why is likely to make this process easier.

There is no doubt that a properly implementing digital notebook or ELN solution can save time and cost in the future, but it can be a considerable investment up front.

What to do next​

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