Lab notebook: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:09, 25 July 2023

Revision as of 02:54, 3 December 2023

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[[File:Lab notebook for A Test of the Coordinated Expression Hypothesis for the Origin and Maintenance of the GAL Cluster in Yeast.pdf|thumb|Lab notebook with the complete record of the experiments underlying a published [[Scholarly paper|paper]].<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Lang | first1 = G. I. | last2 = Botstein | first2 = D. | editor1-last = Rusche | editor1-first = Laura N | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0025290 | title = A Test of the Coordinated Expression Hypothesis for the Origin and Maintenance of the GAL Cluster in Yeast | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 6 | issue = 9 | pages = e25290 | year = 2011 | pmid = 21966486| pmc =3178652 | bibcode = 2011PLoSO...625290L | doi-access = free }}</ref>]]

[[File:Schablone Logarex 25524-S, Chemie II.jpg|thumb|Chemistry stencils that used to be used for drawing equipment in lab notebooks.]]

A '''laboratory notebook''' ([[colloquialism|''colloq.'']] '''lab notebook''' or '''lab book''') is a primary record of [[research]]. Researchers use a lab notebook to document their [[hypothesis|hypotheses]], [[experiment]]s 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schnell|first=Santiago|date=2015-09-10|title=Ten Simple Rules for a Computational Biologist's Laboratory Notebook|journal=PLOS Computational Biology|volume=11|issue=9|pages=e1004385|doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004385|pmid=26356732|pmc=4565690|bibcode=2015PLSCB..11E4385S|issn=1553-7358 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Structure==

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==Legal aspects==

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 Simple Rules for a Computational Biologist's Laboratory Notebook|journal=PLOS Computational Biology|volume=11|issue=9|pages=e1004385|doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004385|pmid=26356732|pmc=4565690|bibcode=2015PLSCB..11E4385S|issn=1553-7358 |doi-access=free }}</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 |pagepages=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.

==Electronic formats==