Scientific workspaces

By providing the features just described, we covered the most important requirements for the electronic scientific document. There is another aspect of scientific 

The preparation of documents is typically done on the local hard drives of desktop computers. This procedure has several drawbacks  

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. 

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A scientific workspace allows creating reports on a less restrictive basis, for instance for intermediate or internal reporting purposes and for documentation that does not underlie the FDA regulations as previously described. 

In the ideal case, conventional word processing software can be embedded into a scientific workspace to directly edit and report information in the same software package. Creating a report document in a scientific workspace also allows the transfer of the preview of any file entry to be included, for instance via drag and drop from the file tree to the document. Workspace reports may optionally include placeholders for administrative data, similar to the electronic scientific document. However, in contrast to the latter, this information may be changed or edited. 

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

Workspaces can be used as a personal workspace replacing the local file system on a desktop computer or as shared workspaces for a team. A scientific workspace allows creating or uploading any kind of document or file and editing it within an ELN. Scientific workspace documents may be created from word processors or other software. Workspaces can additionally contain specialized information — like images, spectra, structures, reactions, and reaction pathways — each of which is at least available as visual representations. 

A scientific workspace editor is a tool that allows scientists to keep their work data supporting the ELN in a separate secure database area. It allows users to create, upload, organize, and share data in a usually less regulated manner than with electronic scientific documents. The principle intention of this tool is to allow the user to enter, work on, and share data in an intermediate secure repository. The user can enter data and keep them private until explicit release and does not need to keep data on paper or on a local file system. In summary, a scientific workspace editor allows the following ... 

Easy sharing of data to other permitted users of the scientific workspace and to external systems or groups. 

The transition from using a file system to using a scientific workspace editor is much easier if the user recognizes similarities. That is why a conventional tree view similar to the various types of file explorer applications should be part of a workspace editor. 

Personal and released files are indicated in the tree view to distinguish them easily. If a file is released to other scientific workspace members, the file can also be made available for review to a predefined list of users that are not members of the workspace. This is done by introducing a publishing level for a file. Only users having the corresponding access level would be able to see files in a scientific workspace they usually would not have access to it at all. This feature is independent from any other user membership that is, publishing a file will make it available to anyone who has access to the software, provided he has the corresponding access level. 

Electronic scientific documents and scientific workspaces are primarily independent from each other but are used in the same environment. Consequently, they share several common resources, such as user, laboratory and project data, metadata, and pick list. Both concepts use a similar technology for predefined templates and file type, respectively. 

Scientific Workspaces are a specialized concept of electronic laboratory notebook software underlying less restrictive regulations than electronic scientific documents. They are containers designed for personal preparation of data as well as for effective organization, sharing, and publishing of information within a team. 

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