Table 4 How the physicists, chemists and biologists who took part in the University of Southampton Focus Groups perform different work tasks with respect to whether they use paper or electronic systems
| Category | Tasks | Biologists | Chemists | Physicists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recording notes | Experiment notes | Paper—Lab Book |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—Data |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—Data |
| Thinking about work notes | Paper—Lab Book |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—Google Tasks |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—Google Keep | |
| Literature notes |
Paper—Print papers/handwritten notes Electronic—reference manager |
Paper—Print papers/handwritten notes Electronic—reference manager |
Paper—Print papers/handwritten notes Electronic—reference manager | |
| Organising notes | Paper—Lab Book by date/contents page |
Paper—Lab Book by date/contents page Electronic—By codes (linking to Lab Book) and by sample/experiment |
Paper—Lab Book by date/contents page Electronic—by codes (linking to Lab Book) and by category/experiment | |
| Searching | Paper—flip back and search by date |
Paper—flip back and search by date Electronic—sort by date/code, or keyword search |
Paper—flip back and search by date Electronic—sort by date | |
| Linking data | Paper and Electronic notes linked by date | Paper and Electronic notes linked by codes | Paper and Electronic notes linked by date | |
| Writing reports | Electronic—Word/Powerpoint | Electronic—Word/LaTeX | Electronic—word/LaTeX | |
| Performing calculations and scientific functionality |
Paper—solve Electronic—check (Excel/GraphPad) |
Paper—solve Electronic—Check (Wolfram Alpha) |
Paper—solve Electronic—Check (Excel/XMGrace/Spartan/PyPlots/R/CSV) | |
| Use of Technology in the Lab (accessibility) | Electronic—Phone pictures/recordings | Electronic—Phone/camera pictures, Emails, Blogs, USB | Electronic—Phone pictures/calendar, Emails | |
| Archiving and backup |
Paper—Mostly no backup (some photocopies) Electronic—Uni computers/shared drives/the cloud/hard drives |
Paper—Mostly no backup (some use carbon pages) Electronic—Uni computers/shared drives/the cloud/hard drive |
Paper—No backup Electronic—Uni computers/shared drives/the cloud/hard drives | |
| Intellectual property | Electronic—Secure data kept on hard drive in locked draw | Electronic—No cloud software for industry sponsored students | Electronic—No cloud software for industry sponsored students | |
| Collaboration | Paper—Lab Book |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—shared drive/group folders |
Paper—Lab Book Electronic—shared drive/group folders | |