Who should keep a laboratory notebook?

4. Who Owns the Notebook? The person or organization who is paying the bills owns your laboratory notebook. In most cases this will be the company, university, or research institute who employs you or your supervisor.

What is the purpose of a research notebook?

Researchers use a lab notebook to document their hypotheses, experiments and initial analysis or interpretation of these experiments. The notebook serves as an organizational tool, a memory aid, and can also have a role in protecting any intellectual property that comes from the research.

How do laboratory notebooks prevent data loss?

If this results in blank pages appearing in your notebook, simply draw a single diagonal line across the blank page(s) to avoid additional data entry; positioning the start of each experiment on an odd page will make it easier for you to locate experiments at a later date.

Are lab notebooks important?

A well-maintained laboratory notebook is an important tool for documenting experimental progress and keeping researchers organized. Maintaining a comprehensive laboratory notebook can also be a valuable resource when patenting a discovery.

What are the do’s and don’ts of keeping a legal notebook?

Do’s and Don’ts for Keeping Research Notebooks

• Do Record in Detail.
• Do Record Research Meetings.
• Do Use Bound Notebooks.
• Do Sign and Date Entries.
• Do Have the Entries Witnessed.
• Do Use Ink.
• Don’t Include Blank Spaces or Empty Pages.
• Don’t Modify Prior Entries at a Later Date.

Is a lab notebook a legal document?

A laboratory notebook provides a permanent record of research, ideas, concepts, data, analysis, and/or observations. It is a legal record of your work and may be used as evidence for patent filing, patent protection, or other legal purposes. A laboratory notebook is a legal document and must be handled accordingly.

How do you keep a good laboratory notebook?

General guidelines for maintaining a notebook

1. Use a pen, never a pencil.
2. Avoid using Sharpies (or equivalent).
3. Devote pages 1 and 2 to a Table of Contents (which you will fill in as time passes).
4. Never remove a page.

What benefits will keeping a logbook give to a researcher?

The logbook will serve as your primary source of documentation of what you actually did in the lab as well as your thought process during the analysis of the data and planning the experiment.

How do you keep a research notebook?

What is a bound notebook?

Hard-bound notebooks include a sewn spine, and the pages are not easily removed. Some styles of sewn bindings allow pages to open flat, while others cause the pages to drape. In the open position, the pages can be removed and rearranged. In the closed position, the pages are kept in order.