Scientific data management system systems

A scientific data management system combines generic data management capabilities with features required for effective creation, search, and management of scientific information. Although it may include more specialized techniques for performing these tasks, it is principally a management system for electronic records. 

In addition to these basic components, a scientific data management system usually must address several of the regulatory standards previously described. Some of the required features are as follows ... 

It is important to distinguish between LIMS and solutions that, at first sight, offer some of the individual features associated with a LIMS. Most commonly, LIMS are compared to scientific data management systems, which may cover the requirements for data management and data security but do not provide the sample-oriented processes that are typical for LIMS. 

Using shared drives is a workaround to some of these requirements but does not provide any significant improvements to protect IP or to organize files in a more effective manner. One way to cope with this situation is using a scientific data management system, as described already. Another concept that shall be described here is the scientific workspace. 

In contrast to the scientific data management system, the focus of scientific workspaces relies on information rather than data. 

With Empower and its parent product Millennium, Waters is the pioneer for database-supported CDS. With the current version Empowers, the final stage of advancements is supposed to be reached. Currently, Waters is developing a successor called UNIEI that follows a new conception and a redevelopment from the scratch the combination of CDS, Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), and Scientific Data Management System (SDMS). 

In order to understand the characteristics of state-of-the-art scientific software, a description of the facilities of the RS/1 system is presented in this section as an example of the kind of software now available to support scientific data management needs. All facilities are based in a single integrated system. No extra steps are needed, for example, to use tabular data as the basis for statistics or to graph the results of modeling. 

Multinational data management systems are the most use to the wider community as both personal and institutional systems are rarely widely known about or accessible (although some institutionally held datasets are made available via the World Wide Web). Although standards for the exchange of biodiversity data have been developed by Biodiversity Information Standards (a not-for-profit scientific and educational association formerly known as the Taxonomic Database Working Group), conditions of data submission and data retrieval from multinational systems vary. 

Information management by EPA, as mandated under TSCA has centered on the development of CSIN (Chemical Substances Information Network). In response to Section 10(b) this information management system has evolved to retrieve toxicological and other scientific data which could be useful to the Administrator in carrying out the act. After several years and about an equal number of millions of dollars, currently a prototype networking... 

The SGX Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is based on an Oracle database platform. As an enterprise level relational database, Oracle is robust and can be expanded to meet any future needs. The expense to implement and maintain the database and to create the tools to retrieve the data stored within, including an administrator dedicated to managing the system, can be significant. At SGX, use of the LIMS to monitor all of our scientific activities reduces the incremental cost to the beamline to an acceptable level. 

Databases are used widely in commercial applications and have become the foundation of modern data processing. Various bibliographic, financial and chemical reference databases are perhaps the most familiar to scientists at this time. However, the proliferation of Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) makes analytical laboratory databases accessible to most laboratory personnel. Such databases store analytical data and scientific information from which a variety of documents and reports are generated. 

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