Scientific Notebook Software: Applications for Academic Radiology

Curr Probl Diagn Radiol. 2018 Nov;47(6):368-377. doi: 10.1067/j.cpradiol.2017.09.005. Epub 2017 Sep 18.

Abstract

Objectives: The goal of this article is to introduce the concept of scientific notebook software, and to illustrate how it can be used to document a research project, to perform image analysis and to create interactive teaching tools.

Methods: We describe the installation of scientific notebook software known as Project Jupyter, which is free, open-source and available for the Macintosh, Windows and Linux operating systems.

Results: We have created 2 scientific notebooks that demonstrate applications germane to radiologists, particularly those in academic radiology. The first notebook provides a tutorial that summarizes basic features of the Project Jupyter notebook, and gives numerous examples of how the notebooks can display explicatory text, perform statistical computations, and display plots, interactive graphics, and audio files. The second notebook provides a toolbox for viewing and manipulating images in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine format.

Conclusions: Scientific notebook software allows its users to document their work in a form that combines text, graphics, images, data, interactive calculations and image analysis within a single document. Scientific notebooks also provide interactive teaching tools, which are can help explain complex topics in imaging physics to residents.

MeSH terms

  • Biomedical Research*
  • Education, Medical, Graduate
  • Humans
  • Internship and Residency
  • Radiology* / education
  • Software*
  • Teaching Materials*