Welcome to the digital lab movement

Less than 10% of researchers are using an electronic lab notebook today. However, in my mind there is no doubt that the digital trend will accelerate and that we’ll see a lot more of the ELN.

I still hold on to my old paper notebook as some sort of memento, to remind me of all the time I wasted printing, cutting and pasting all kinds of documents onto the pages of my lab companion. It didn’t matter whether I was working with Excel files, 3D models, plain text documents, metadata or proprietary information files, everything ended up going through this ritual.

My hope for this article is that it contributes, even if just a little bit, to the increased acceptance of the digital lab. Scientists are at the forefront of innovation, and should be supported at all times by the most advanced technology available.

I strongly believe that the future will see connected laboratories which would enable clean and structured data, as well as artificial intelligence helping researchers better understand experiment results.

Electronic lab notebooks are the first step in the right direction, and little by little they evolve into highly intelligent productivity and collaboration platforms that will support scientists all over the world in their quest to make groundbreaking discoveries.

I wish you all the best of luck with your research, and thank you for your continuing commitment to excellence.

Best,

Simon