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Mamm Genome (2010) 21:205215 DOI 10.1007/s00335-010-9250-1
JAX Colony Management System (JCMS): an extensible colony and phenotype data management system
Chuck J. Donnelly Mike McFarland
Abigail Ames Beth Sundberg Dave Springer
Peter Blauth Carol J. Bult
Received: 14 November 2009 / Accepted: 5 January 2010 / Published online: 7 February 2010 The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The Jackson Laboratory Colony Management System (JCMS) is a software application for managing data and information related to research mouse colonies, associated biospecimens, and experimental protocols. JCMS runs directly on computers that run one of the PC Windows operating systems, but can be accessed via web browser interfaces from any computer running a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux operating system. JCMS can be congured for a single user or multiple users in small- to medium-size work groups. The target audience for JCMS includes laboratory technicians, animal colony managers, and principal investigators. The application provides operational support for colony management and experimental workows, sample and data tracking through transaction-based data entry forms, and date-driven work reports. Flexible query forms allow researchers to retrieve database records based on user-dened criteria. Recent advances in handheld computers with integrated barcode readers, middleware technologies, web browsers, and wireless networks add to the utility of JCMS by allowing real-time access to the database from any networked computer.
Introduction
Animal models play a critical role in biomedical research because of their experimental tractability and their genetic and physiological similarity to humans. As outlined by Russell and Burch (1959), the generally accepted principles
for the ethical use of animal models in research include the three Rs: replace, reduce, and rene (Richmond 2000). Effective data management is key for implementing the principle of using only those animals that are necessary for achieving the goals of a particular experimental design(i.e., reduce). Despite the importance of data management, many researchers use handwritten notebooks or spreadsheet applications for managing small- and medium-sized animal colonies. Such ad hoc data management approaches are simple to adopt but do not scale well and are error prone. Both paper records and spreadsheets are difcult for multiple people to access simultaneously, and paper records need to be physically moved from one location to another and can easily be misplaced....