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NexusLIMS: A Laboratory Information Management System for Shared-Use Electron Microscopy Facilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Joshua A. Taillon Open the ORCID record for Joshua A. Taillon [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas F. Bina ,
Raymond L. Plante ,
Marcus W. Newrock ,
Gretchen R. Greene  and
June W. Lau
Joshua A. Taillon*
Affiliation:
Office of Data and Informatics, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO80305, USA
Thomas F. Bina
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA Office of Data and Informatics, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA
Raymond L. Plante
Affiliation:
Office of Data and Informatics, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA
Marcus W. Newrock
Affiliation:
Office of Data and Informatics, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA
Gretchen R. Greene
Affiliation:
Office of Data and Informatics, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA
June W. Lau
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD20899, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: Joshua A. Taillon, E-mail: joshua.taillon@nist.gov
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Abstract

This work introduces NexusLIMS, an electron microscopy laboratory information management system designed and implemented by the Office of Data and Informatics and the Materials Science and Engineering Division at NIST for a multi-user electron microscopy co-op facility. NexusLIMS comprises network infrastructure, shared information technology resources, a custom software package to harvest and extract experimental information and construct experimental metadata records, and an intuitive web-based user-facing interface for searching, browsing, and examining research data. These metadata records conform to the Nexus Experiment schema, which is introduced in this work. The NexusLIMS suite of tools requires minimal input and adjustments to user behavior, instead relying on existing organizational procedures and the collection of information from a multitude of sources to construct a complete picture and record of a research experiment. The underlying infrastructure and design considerations for a multi-user data management system are discussed. The core codebase for NexusLIMS is made publicly available alongside this work, and its modular design encourages the adaptation of the presented methods at other research organizations.

Keywords

data managementlaboratory information managementmetadata extractionopen source softwareuser facilityelectron microscopy
Type
Software and Instrumentation
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , June 2021 , pp. 511 - 527
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Copyright
Copyright © National Institute of Standards and Technology 2021 outside of the United States of America. As a work owned by the United States Government, this Contribution is not subject to copyright within the United States. Outside of the United States, Cambridge University Press is the nonexclusively licensed publisher of the Contribution. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America

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Footnotes

†

Current address: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

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