MyExperimentalScience, extending the ‘workflow’

Science, especially experimental science, has always depended on the careful capture of plans, actions, raw and processed data and conclusions. With scientific research now so inextricably dependent on computers, the use of an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) is almost essential. The meticulous notebooks of Michael Faraday and other scientists of his era remain as role models for the recording that is necessary, but they cannot provide the essential support for discussion, sharing, collaboration and formal verification. A blog (a contraction of Web log) can form the basis for implementing an electronic notebook but does not suffice to meet all the needs of an ELN. This paper describes the LabTrove ELN, which is blog based but provides numerous additional features, such as version control, security policies and a flexible metadata scheme, and facilities for interchanging objects with other systems. The MyExperimentalScience project links LabTrove with myExperiment, a repository for workflows in a collaborative environment, thereby making LabTrove templates available for discovery and reuse. Collaboration, sharing and reuse are essential for scientific progress, which depends on individual scientists building on the results already produced by others. Open‐source ELNs such as LabTrove are ideal vehicles to support the growth of Open Notebook Science. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.