Pharma IQ Glossary: Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN)

An Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN), also referred to as an electronic lab notebook, is a software program designed to replace paper laboratory notebooks. Lab notebooks in general are used by scientists and technicians to document research, experiments and procedures performed in a laboratory. ELNs can be divided into two categories: “Specific ELNs" contain features designed to work with specific applications, scientific instrumentation or data types and "Cross-disciplinary ELNs" or "Generic ELNs" are designed to support access to all data and information that needs to be recorded in a lab notebook.