A scientific data management system keeps the files the instruments produce, the chromatogram, the spectrum, the image, the run log, indexed and versioned, where the LIMS keeps the result read from them. Scientific data management systems and scientific data management software are the same product under two names; SDMS software is the trade's acronym for it; and the SDMS LIMS link is the pointer from the result on the test to the file it came from. For a small lab the question is whether the instrument files need a system of their own or a folder and a pointer, and this page is that question; the free instrument calibration sheet on this site works a figure the SDMS records the evidence for, the calibration cost per instrument, from the lab's own numbers with no account.
What scientific data management software keeps
Every file an instrument writes, with the instrument, the method, the sample and the time it was written, versioned so a reprocessed file does not replace the original. That is the original record Part 11 asks a regulated lab to keep; the LIMS keeps the number, the SDMS keeps the proof.
The SDMS LIMS link
The result on the test points at the file in the SDMS; the file points back at the test. A small lab can keep the link as a field on the result and the files in a controlled folder, which is an SDMS without the license; a lab whose instruments write hundreds of files a day needs the indexing done for it.
When a small lab needs one
When a regulator asks for the raw file behind a result and the answer takes longer than a minute, or when two instruments write the same file name. Until then the folder, the pointer and the calibration record do the job: 12 instruments at $960 a year each on the worked example, from the calibration sheet on this site. Limslane Pro keeps the result with its instrument and the pointer to its file at one flat price.
Questions people ask about scientific data management system
What is a scientific data management system?
The keeper of the instrument's raw files, indexed, versioned and linked to the result the LIMS holds; the proof behind the number.
Does a small lab need SDMS software?
When the raw file behind a result takes more than a minute to find, or the instruments write more files than a folder can index; otherwise a controlled folder and a pointer on the result.
How does SDMS link to LIMS?
The result points at the file and the file at the test; Limslane Pro keeps the pointer on the result.