3. Keeping a good laboratory notebook

Note: In this section, the word “notebook” is used in the broad sense of the term, meaning any system you might be using (handwritten, typed, recorded…) to keep a record of the details of your experiment.

3.1 Why keep a laboratory notebook?

    There are at least three reasons why it is absolutely essential to keep a good laboratory notebook:

1. Your laboratory notebook bears witness of the fact that you worked according to the scientific method. A well-kept laboratory notebook in fact forces you to remember that research should be conducted according to the scientific method, and therefore represents an important step towards insightful and accurate experiments. A good lab notebook also keeps you organized and efficient, and makes writing a paper or lab report about your experiments very easy.
2. Your laboratory notebook should allow another person (for example a new student or a collaborator, or maybe even you in a few months or years) to exactly reproduce your experiments. It therefore needs to be as complete and accurate as possible. Always keep this in mind when writing your laboratory notebook.
   
3. A laboratory notebook is a legal record of your work, as long as it has been signed by a witness (usually a collaborator or a co-worker). Practically, it means that your laboratory notebook is eventually what allows you to keep the rights of your discoveries.

3.2 General guidelines for an excellent laboratory notebook

• When purchasing a physical laboratory notebook, make sure it has page numbers and a stitched binding (one should not be able to remove pages from the their lab notebook without leaving evidence of this).
• Make sure that the front page of your lab notebook is properly labeled (name, date, course), and that you leave room for a table of content just after that front page.
• Remember that a lab notebook should show that you are working according to the scientific method. So for each reported experiment you should include:
  • A descriptive title
  • A very brief description of the experiment, including motivation, objectives, and if appropriate expected outcome (i.e. hypothesis). This is so you can remember why you did this experiment.
  • The detailed step-by-step procedure you followed when performing the experiment. Remember to provide justification for your experimental choices (why this wavelength? why this buffer?), either in the form of a short explanation or by referencing articles using similar procedures. Do not hesitate to make drawings or include pictures if you think it will help clarify things.
  • The data you obtained, shown in as many ways as necessary (e.g. raw data, excel spreadsheet, graph, etc…), as well as the analysis performed on your data if appropriate (e.g. average value and standard deviation, fit of your data with an analytical function, etc…).
  • A very brief conclusion. You do not need to discuss your results as you would do in a paper, but just acknowledge where you are at.
• Your lab notebook should be organized chronologically. Make sure that at the top of each page you enter the date, so that one can leaf through your notebook easily.
• Make sure that you enter the details of your experiments as you are carrying out the experiment. Do not wait!
• When describing your experimental procedure, the more the better. You need to report exactly which amounts of reagents have been mixed, where were these reagents coming from, which instrument (make, model) has been used and with which settings, who did the experiment with you, etc… If something goes wrong, you need to be able to go back and check what might have gone wrong and should be improved for next time. The only exception would be if you exactly repeat a procedure already entered in the notebook. Then you could just refer to that procedure.
• Make sure you record all things you perceive as mistakes, with the idea that if the experiment fails you will be able to assess possible causes for the failure.
• A good laboratory notebook should have a lot of added content (pasted or taped in the right place) in the form of graphs, pictures, product labels, etc…
• Your lab notebook must be clear, such that somebody else must be able to read it and understand it thoroughly. But it does not need to be perfect (it is not for publication). If you make a mistake, do not erase or tear pages out, just cross out the incorrect part.
• Your notebook should include all “back-of-the envelope” calculations done in the lab.
• Include contact information for all the collaborators (i.e. lab partners) mentioned in your notebook.

    For more tips on keeping laboratory notebooks, you can check the following websites: www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/notebook/notebook.html and colinpurrington.com/tips/ academic/labnotebooks.

3.3 Using an electronic lab notebook

    Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN) probably represent the future of lab notebooks, and you are encouraged to use one if you would like. Different software are available that allow you to build electronic lab notebooks (e.g. https://scinote.net or www.labarchives.com), while respecting the principles outlined in the previous section.

    ELNs will automatically keep track of a few things that you would otherwise have had to think about (i.e. your name at the beginning of your notebook, the date of your entries), and will facilitate the inclusion of some types of contents (e.g. movies). Some ELNs will also make it easier to share your work with collaborators.

Other things, however, you will still have to think about. For example:

• • Make sure your writing style is clear and readable by other people.
  • Make sure that you clearly label your entries (i.e. give the files you upload names that are straightforward)
  • Organize your files in folders by date and by experiments.
  • Include all the information detailed above, including what mistakes have been made (and hopefully corrected) during the experiments.