The subject of raw data has crept into the vocabulary of the media recently with alleged wrong doings amongst scientists in connection with data related to climate change.  The matter has unsurprisingly been dubbed ‘climategate’ and is currently chalking up over 28,000,000 hits on Google.  The underlying issues, if they are real, are political, and [...]

Hello everyone! As a new contributor to The Integrated Lab and my first time ever writing a blog entry, I was wondering how I would start contributing to the site and also how do you blog?
John’s earlier post “Tales from the Crypt” gave me that answer: Document Management.  Having done some projects related to document [...]

It’s hardly the most exciting subject, but long term retention is one of those topics that seem to lurk in the background whenever the subject of electronic records comes up.  With several centuries experience behind us, we’ve learned quite a bit about preserving paper records; Leonardo Da Vinci wrote his notes over 500 years ago, [...]

One of the big challenges for research laboratories is getting the balance right between ‘need to know’ and ‘want to know’.  Most scientists will fall into the later category; after all, innovation depends on an inquisitive mind, and an open and sharing environment should act as a stimulus for discovery.  On the other side of [...]

Are you responsible for managing a collection of records that are currently stored in filing cabinets, boxes, computers and servers? Is the collection growing rapidly? Do you feel that no one really cares, except when there’s a legal or regulatory action?
You are not alone. Even with all of the publicity about companies getting into trouble [...]