Journal:Implementing an institution-wide electronic laboratory notebook initiative

Full article title	Implementing an institution-wide electronic laboratory notebook initiative
Journal	Journal of the Medical Library Association
Author(s)	Foster, Erin D.; Whipple, Elizabeth, C.; Rios, Gabriel R.
Author affiliation(s)	University of California Berkeley, Indiana University School of Medicine
Primary contact	Email: grrios at iu dot edu
Year published	2022
Volume and issue	110(2)
Page(s)	222–7
DOI	10.5195/jmla.2022.1407
ISSN	1558-9439
Distribution license	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Website	https://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/article/view/1407
Download	https://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/article/view/1407/2055 (PDF)

Abstract

Background: To strengthen institutional research data management practices, the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) licensed an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) to improve the organization, security, and shareability of information and data generated by the school’s researchers. The Ruth Lilly Medical Library led implementation on behalf of the IUSM’s Office of Research Affairs.

Case presentation: This article describes the pilot and full-scale implementation of an ELN at IUSM. The initial pilot of the ELN in late 2018 involved 15 research labs, with access expanded in 2019 to all academic medical school constituents. The Ruth Lilly Medical Library supports researchers using the ELN by (1) delivering trainings that cover strategies for adopting an ELN and a hands-on demo of the licensed ELN, (2) providing one-on-one consults with research labs or groups as needed, and (3) developing best practice guidance and template notebooks to assist in adoption of the ELN. The library also communicates availability of the ELN to faculty, students, and staff through presentations delivered at department meetings and write-ups in the institution's newsletter, as appropriate.

Conclusion: As of August 2021, there are 829 users at IUSM. Ongoing challenges include determining what support to offer beyond the existing training, sustaining adoption of the ELN within research labs, and defining “successful” adoption at the institution level. By leading the development of this service, the library is more strongly integrated and visible in the research activities of the institution, particularly as related to information and data management.

Keywords: electronic laboratory notebook, institutional collaborations, information management

Background

Research institutions are currently facing a variety of information and data management challenges, such as increasing amounts of data regenerated, a greater need for data storage, demand for replicability and reproducibility, funder mandates for data sharing, and acts of research misconduct. Within university settings, electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) are marketed as an improvement to paper notebooks, including improved information retrieval and data sharing. [1–5] Additionally, ELNs can ingest and store large(r) amounts of data, with many also offering integrated options fordata backup and data security. [6] Lastly, ELNs may promote research reproducibility by providing improved documentation of research processes, particularly through features such as versioning and revision tracking. [6, 7, 8]

Despite these purported advantages, numerous barriers may discourage researchers from transitioning from paper notebooks to ELNs. One primary challenge is cost; unless these tools are licensed by their home institutions, research labs or groups find themselves shouldering the cost of a license for these products. For some, this is a possibility via research funds; however, most find themselves unable or unwilling to cover such a cost. [3, 7, 8, 9] While many ELN products offer a “freemium” model whereby a given number of people or a given amount of storage is free, the limitations of the free versions rarely meet the needs of researchers over time. Additionally, features like institutional single sign-on and integration with an institution's cloud storage subscriptions (e.g., Google Drive, Box, Microsoft OneDrive) are often only available with institutional licensing. This is particularly notable for providing additional data security measures important to protecting research information, as well as enabling retention of this information and data by academic institutions.

Due to research universities' growing concerns over institutional cybersecurity and protecting data assets, universities increasingly require their researchers to ensure the security of their research data. This emphasis on data security—which includes guidance on entering, storing, and retaining data with third parties—can further complicate ELN adoption since these products often process and store data in the cloud. [6, 10] This highlights the importance of auditing an ELN product to ensure that third-party companies' data practices are compliant with university standards. This step is easily overlooked when individual research labs or groups purchase licenses for ELN use outside of institutional units (e.g., Procurement Office) or use the free version of an ELN for academic research. Communicating the importance of the institutional security review and its function to protect research data and information long-term for both researchers and the institution is crucial, as is ensuring that the security review process itself is well documented and timely in its completion.

Notes

This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. To more easily differentiate footnotes from references, the original footnotes (which were numbered) were updated to use lowercase letters. Most footnotes referencing web pages were turned into proper citations.