The researcher's notebook has traditionally been a paper logbook for research procedures, notes, diagrams and results. The last few years the use of ELNs has increased rapidly among researchers due to time savings, clearer documentation, and the ability to search and easily share information. Most ELN systems are server-based which have, due to investment requirements, kept single researchers and smaller organisations from using ELNs.
"There is no doubt that ELNs will soon predominate the research community and most larger organisations are already using these systems," said Martin Wattin, CEO at Contur Software. "The response from iLabber users is very positive and we are convinced we are meeting a strong demand from the large number of single researchers and smaller organisations."
Start using iLabber is easy and users only have to download a desktop client which takes a few minutes. Operations, maintenance and data storage is securely managed by Contur Software. The service is available to single researchers and research groups with a maximum of 15 users within commercial and academic organisations. Single researchers use iLabber for free, while there is a fee of 60 USD per month and user for commercial organisations. Academic organisations pay only half of that fee.
The laboratory notebook is of great legal importance as it is frequently used in patent rights issues to prove what party was first behind an invention. The authenticity of the laboratory notebook is critical and therefore iLabber includes a digital signature feature allowing for colleagues to verify research results. Security backup of all data is managed automatically for external storage. Additionally, all data can be printed manually should users want to maintain a hard-copy archive. Chemical search capabilities in iLabber are powered by ChemAxon's JChem Cartridge, enabling data to be searched by structure, substructure and similarity criteria.
"iLabber has helped significantly in the organisation of our data as well as in recalling old data. Previously with a paper notebook I found myself constantly having to cross-reference between my paper notebook and various files of different types that were saved in numerous places on my computer," said Paul Hanlon, Manager of Discovery Science, Department of Research & Development, Standard Process. "iLabber allows me to easily group together information in a single location, permitting me to more quickly interpret my results. The search function has also been very useful, and I have used it to rapidly find the results from single samples, something that would have taken tedious opening of numerous files with our old system. Because of these reasons I feel that iLabber has greatly improved my productivity."
In 2003 Contur Software launched the server-based electronic laboratory notebook ConturELN which today is used by around 60 organisations around the world. Among the customers are Merrimack, University of Oxford, University of Toronto, Johnson Matthey, Plasticolors and more.
