Tassos reports: > 1. None of the twenty test-users was satisfied with any of the two > solutions - and each was annoyed for a different reason.
This suggests that the choice of ELN is not the most difficult part of the adoption process. Maybe the test users at the NKI were annoyed by the idea of using an ELN at all. In my experience, the hardest part is ensuring that it provides benefits to the people who have to enter the data, and provides them early. The fact that it will make information retrieval easier in three years is not enough. I suggest focussing on electronic support for housekeeping: booking time on an instrument, finding the files the instrument created, ordering oligos, recording when you use the last of a reagent. Scientists work very independently in most respects, but they do have certain obligations that flow from sharing the lab space. You can make use of these to encourage compliance with the ELN. If you do, then most of the science will get recorded in passing. I suggest also ensuring that it includes electronic tools that actually help. Two examples from PiMS are primer design, and automatically uploading and interpreting results from the Caliper GX instrument. It must allow round trips with spreadsheets, i.e. dump ELN data as a spreadsheet, edit it, upload it again. Despite their substantial disadvantages, some scientists will not give them up. It should also allow crossreferencing with paper note books. Some will continue to use a lab notebook. When they discover that the ELN serves as a searchable index to it, they will warm to the ELN. I suggest aiming for "no paper" at your lab progress meetings within say 12 months. When you reach that point, everything important is in the ELN. Before then, the ELN is not giving real value. You will need someone who is keen on the introduction of the ELN, to customise it, provide first line user support, and act as a single point of contact with the supplier. This might be a scientist or an IT person. I have also seen this done well by a technician, Delphine Chesnel when she was at the EMBL Hamburg. If you can't find such a "champion", then introduction will not be successful. Some of the problem here is an "own goal" by the community: scientists are trained to use paper during their degrees, so ELNs are a controversial change of practice. One person who, unusually, began with an ELN told me how inconvenient it is now she works in a paper-based lab. PepTalk 2012 had a workshop on this topic. The recording and notes are here: http://www.structuralbiology.eu/support/forums/networks/pims/why-dont-scientists-use-limselns regards, Chris ____________________________________________ Chris Morris chris.mor...@stfc.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1925 603689 Fax: +44 (0)1925 603634 Mobile: 07921-717915 Skype: chrishgmorris http://pims.structuralbiology.eu/ http://www.citeulike.org/blog/chrishmorris Daresbury Lab, Daresbury, Warrington, UK, WA4 4AD