Following on from some previous posts about ELNs in academia, I came across this; ‘Thinking about electronic lab books’. It’s another creative approach to implementing an ELN, using a wiki, based on five very clear requirements:
- Easy access from any computer with a web browser
- Ability to securely edit the pages, and keep an edit history
- Commenting from other people
- Backup
- Search
Simple requirments; simple solution.
But on a different note, the University of Cambridge has taken a commercial route. I can’t help thinking that one approach, from the complex area of bioinformatics, has adopted a very simple solution, whereas the other, from a more structured chemistry-based process, has chosen a sophisticated commercial solution. It does draw attention to the difference in requirements between biology and chemistry when choosing an ELN, and the difference in the possible solutions.
Laboratory Informatics companies have, over the years, taken different stances on working with academia. Some companies have donated their software in order to get students and professers used to using it. Others provide an academic price model that makes it feasible for the institution to purchase the software at a more modest price. And then I suspect that some academic institutions might actually purchase the software with the standard pricing, if it is truly strategic to the research they are doing. It would be interesting to know which of these situations the University of Cambridge falls into.