Electronic lab notebooks: can they replace paper?

Table 3 Categorised barriers of ELN adoption from the Dial a Molecule iLabber Pilot Project: Potential Uses of ELNs in Academia Survey

Category	Barriers	Percentage of 169 (%)
Cost	Up front costs and licensing fees	74
	Additional infrastructure costs (e.g. computers)	27
	Future development and costs of applications	90
	On-going costs of the system	93
ELN attitude	Only makes sense if the whole department adopts it	20
ELN attitude	Belief that students/post docs would resist adoption	11
Ease of Use	ELN was too difficult to use	22
	Does not capture the right information for me	7
	Difficult to capture some kinds of information in an ELN	80
ELN access	You’d need to enter data in both the lab and write-up area	74
ELN access	No easy access to appropriate hardware in the lab	12.5
Data compatibility	Data will be tied into a commercial package	84
Other	Other	11

ISSN: 1758-2946