Lab notebook: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:42, 14 August 2020

Revision as of 01:19, 17 May 2021

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==Legal aspects==

To ensure that data cannot be easily altered, notebooks with permanently bound pages are often recommended. Researchers are often encouraged{{by whom|date=August 2020}} to write only with unerasable pen, to sign and date each page, and to have their notebooks inspected periodically by another scientist who can read and understand it. All of these guidelines can be useful in proving exactly when a discovery was made, in the case of a patent dispute. It is worth noting however that following March 2013, lab notebooks are of limited legal use in the United States, due to a change in the law that grants patents to the first person to file, rather than the first person to invent.<ref>{{citationcite journal |last1=Abrams |first1=David |last2=Wagner |first2=R. Polk |title=Poisoning the Next Apple? The America Invents Act and Individual Inventors |journal=Stanford Law Review needed|date=August1 March 2013 |volume=65 |issue=3 |page=519 |url=http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/03/WagnerAbrams_65_Stan._L._Rev._517.pdf |access-date=17 May 20202021}}</ref> The lab notebook is still useful for proving that work was not stolen, but can no longer be used to dispute the patent of an unrelated party.

==Electronic formats==