To ensure that data cannot be easily altered, notebooks with permanently bound pages are often recommended.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schnell|first=Santiago|date=2015-09-10|title=Ten ResearchersSimple areRules oftenfor encouraged{{bya whomComputational Biologist's Laboratory Notebook|datejournal=AugustPLOS 2020Computational Biology|volume=11|issue=9|pages=e1004385|doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004385|pmid=26356732|pmc=4565690|bibcode=2015PLSCB..11E4385S|issn=1553-7358}}</ref> Researchers are often encouraged 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomson |first=JA |author-link= |date=2007 |title=How to Start—and Keep—a Laboratory Notebook: Policy and Practical Guidelines. In: Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices (eds. Krattiger A, Mahoney RT, Nelsen L, et al.) |url= |___location=Oxford, UK |publisher=MIHR |page=763–771 |isbn=}}</ref> 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>{{cite 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 |date=1 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 2021}}</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.
