Information Management Best Practices: Update On Electronic Laboratory Notebooks

Drawing on high-level interviews with leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, our research on information markets and users, and comprehensive product research, this Briefing examines the current state of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs). Technological developments have greatly improved the products available on the market, but in practice ELNs have yet to be fully implemented. The benefits of ELNs are many; they hold great promise for process improvement, protecting intellectual property, and stimulating knowledge-sharing. Complete elimination of paper records is not yet a reality, however; most leading companies have applied hybrid models that use ELNs to record data but still require paper copies for archival and evidentiary purposes. Information managers are increasingly recognizing that, while lab notebooks have traditionally been beyond their scope, there is an opportunity to bring lab notebooks into their domain as part of the broader realm of information asset management. The Briefing provides real-life best practices and a table comparing providers and their products. It concludes with a list of Imperatives for Information Managers for addressing the issues that ELNs present.