Consideration on a service system for knowledge management in scientific laboratories

Scientific research requires huge amount of data, information and knowledge, and all of them should be effectively integrated for knowledge sharing and creation. Although there has been a great deal of recognition in the business world that information technology (IT) can be vital tools in organizations´ knowledge creation, a few literatures show that researchers have begun to look at how they might use IT to assist in knowledge management (KM) and scientific knowledge creation in academia. In this paper we consider developing a service system for KM in scientific labs. The research concentrates on understanding the situation and problems of knowledge creators per se, as disclosed in field research by a survey of the management and creation process of scientific knowledge in one research institute. Some serious obstacles and hidden problems have been discovered in this survey. Along with these findings and combining i-system theory, we present our framework to develop laboratory knowledge management system (LKMS) for more effective KM and better creativity support.