"CENSML.org" has set itself the task of defining an agreed XML standard for CENSML which:

• allows for the import and export of data from one ELN to another, regardless of manufacturer, retaining as much of the data as possible
• increases the chance that the ELN data will be accessible by people far into the future, who may not have access to the orignal toolsets
• increases the choices available to purchasers of ELNs
• achieves an industry consensus as far as possible

XML has been chosen as the basis for CENSML because:

• it is a well respected, open, established standard, which is likely to have longevity
• it is extensible
• most tools and development environments have built-in support for XML
• there are a number of other projects from which CENSML can draw experience, standards, and inspiration.

CENSML is a vendor- and implementation-neutral format for such data. It is based on simple, proven formats, and should be flexible enough to accommodate all the data within an ELN. This goal is ambitious, and it is not practical to expect all data within an ELN to be exportable to an open file format. Therefore, CENSML will attempt to deal with proprietary formats in a way that minimises their impact on the accessibility of the overall records set.

Making this happen

To make CENSML a success, vendors need to implement CENSML in their products, and customers need to demand it from their vendors.

To be an open, neutral format, CENSML needs as broad a participation as possible, especially in the design phase.

Therefore, we welcome comments and contributions from anyone who wishes to participate in the process of defining CENSML, and those who want to implement systems that use it. You can contact us directly and join CENSML mailing lists to participate in discussions, as well as being informed of new releases etc.

Finally, Amphora are also making available an Open Source ELN, which will hopefully form the basis of a reference implementation of CENSML. For more information, see http://www.opensourceeln.org/.

Credits

This initiative was started by Amphora Research Systems, in conjunction with CENSA and CENSA members. The name "CENSML" was coined by Rich Lysakowski of CENSA.