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Short abstract:

Facilitating transparency, reproducibility and information exchange in biomedical research through co-laboration in electronic laboratory notebooks requires creating an awareness of its social innovation charackter at all organizational levels.

Long abstract:

In the context of the replication crisis, the use of an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) is considered an effective measure to strengthen Open Science (OS) and Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI), both representing key concepts of the European Union’ framework programmes. In ELN - a software solution for documenting the research process - observations, protocols or analyses can be linked directly to research data, which is supposed to increase research transparency and facilitate the researcher’s co-production and knowledge transfer. Hence, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, one of Europe’s largest university medical centres, runs an institution-wide ELN implementation programme. Using an experimental design, we recently evaluated this OS & RRI attempt, showing that ELN-implementing research teams need to adopt laboratory routines and practices to use ELN effectively. Also, for establishing a digital research documentation practice according to rigorous documentation standards, the ability of the implementing organisation to develop a shared understanding of digital documentation criteria and procedures has emerged as an influential success factor that depends on ELN skills at the level of individual researchers, and data documentation and management knowledge at the level of research teams. Furthermore, the availability of resources, e.g. IT infrastructure and time, is an influencing factor that relates to leadership as organisational and research group leaders can actively support or hinder digital documentation practice in research teams. Thus, findings emphasise the need to create awareness of the social innovation character of ELN-based digital research documentation at all organisational levels.