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Publication
PropertyValue
Working Groups AG Nußbeck, AG Schwappach
SubprojectINF
Open AccessOpen Access Yes
Publication TypeJournal Article
Peer ReviewedUnknown
PMIDPubMed ID 24833749
DOIDOI 10.15252/embr.201338358
Publication Year2014
TitleThe laboratory notebook in the 21st century Wikidata
JournalEMBO reports
ISSN1469-221X
eISSN1469-3178
URL http://embor.embopress.org/content/early/2014/05/15/embr.201338358
Pagese201338358
Journal AbbreviationEMBO Rep
ExtraDetailed note‐keeping is a prerequisite for, if not a key component of, scientific discovery. An unrecorded experiment is lost to the world even if it sparks a great idea in a scientist's mind: Additional work is needed to reproduce and confirm the original observation and to test the hypothesis by novel experimental strategies. Hence, a detailed record of the experimental setup, observations, and analysis is a crucial requirement for presenting a new discovery to the scientific community. > An unrecorded experiment is lost to the world even if it sparks a great idea in a scientist's mind… For centuries, scientists have been using paper notebooks. However, the digital revolution has changed every aspect of data handling: Acquisition has become automated, primary data exist in a huge variety of formats and require vast memory space, and analysis increasingly uses sophisticated software. While electronic note‐keeping has become state of the art in the pharmaceutical industry, it is by far not the standard in academic life‐science laboratories. In fact, digital record‐keeping has been controversial in academia, and hence, its implementation has been lagging. We argue that many academic laboratories will soon abolish the current precarious mixture of digital data and paper‐based annotation. We see three main reasons for this trend. First, the vast majority of the data generated by a scientist will be in digital form that has to be documented and archived; however, the paper‐based laboratory notebook does not enable convenient documentation of folder structures and data paths. Second, ongoing efforts aim to standardize experimental protocols and data formats in order to improve their general comparability and re‐analysis of data, which make standardization more attractive for scientists. In fact, standardization is a prerequisite for using an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN). Third, long‐term data storage, an essential component of good scientific practice, easily turns … PMID: 24833749
AuthorsNussbeck SY, Weil P, Menzel J, Marzec B, Lorberg K, Schwappach B
First AuthorNussbeck SY
Last AuthorSchwappach B
ScholiaScholia Wikidata-based representation at Scholia

 External Resources

 embopres...d=true  Article fulltext

 gro-2/4655  GRO.publications identifier

 0000-0003-1223-6494  ORCID identifier (Sara Yasemin Nußbeck)

 0000-0002-9596-6240  ORCID identifier (Julia Menzel)

 0000-0002-9640-8881  ORCID identifier (Bartlomiej Marzec)

 0000-0003-0225-6432  ORCID identifier (Blanche Schwappach)

 021ft0n22  ROR identifier (021ft0n22, University Medical Center Göttingen)

 Q28654694  Wikidata ID

Linked Lab Notebooks

UMG-UIDResearcherEditing period
umg-sfb1002-9925Nußbeck, Sara Y.2015-01-01 - 2017-01-01