1: Keeping a Lab Notebook

Learning Objectives

• Understand the importance of a well-kept notebook.
• Learn how to enter information and maintain a legal scientific notebook.

Upon completion of this lab, students will be able to:

• Record information into a notebook in a legally acceptable format.
• Format a table of contents.
• Make appropriate corrections to their notebook.
• Engage in good laboratory practices.

 

Introduction

Regardless if you work at a biotechnology company or in an academic research lab, keeping a lab notebook is a requirement. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) handbook states, "if it isn't written down, it wasn't done." The lab notebook is considered a legal document and can be used in court to settle patent disputes or to report a specialist’s finding in paternity suits or criminal cases. Often times, the lab notebook is used as a starting point for other scientists who work in the lab. Lab notebooks are always maintained for the following reasons:

• To record the steps an individual has carried out and to document their observations
• To establish ownership in case of a patent dispute or other legal issues
• To establish guidelines used to evaluate the process in which a product was made and to evaluate the product itself
• To follow the production of a product through the manufacturing process
• To create a contract between a company and consumers and/or between a company and regulatory agencies
• To demonstrate a procedure was done correctly
• To develop, follow, and evaluate standard operating procedures (SOP)

Without documentation, even quality work is worthless. In the event of an experiment failing, the documentation allows for a scientist to review their protocol and make adjustments for future experiments. As stated above, in industry, lab notebooks are legal documents. They are used to determine product quality, patent rights, and liability. Notebooks are always treated as if they will be used in court because the consequences of not doing so could be devastating to a company or research program.

Lab notebooks are kept to document and organize your experimental plans and data. Every lab requires each researcher to keep one. Yet no two scientists organize their lab notebooks identically, and there isn't one "right" way for you to keep yours. There are some common elements that all lab notebooks share and some important habits you should develop in keeping your notebook for this class. All lab notebooks should be...

1. Complete

Your notebook is a place to collect descriptions of experimental goals, experimental procedures, all the data you collect, and your interpretations of results. Numerical data and calculations should be written directly into your notebook, not on scraps of paper to be entered later. Data in the form of a photo should be taped into your notebook. Printouts and X-ray films can also be taped into your notebook or if reams of paper and large films are being collected, they can be organized in a separate binder and referenced in your notebook.

2. Organized

Some scientists arrange their notebooks by date, others by the question being tested. What works best depends on the research itself and the researcher. Since this class has four experimental modules that are performed sequentially, your notebook will, by default, be organized by both date and project. You will keep a record of every lab meeting, including both the date and the module/day in your notebook.

3. Up to Date

For this class, that means coming to lab with the date, module/day, title, purpose, and description already entered in your notebook. It will occasionally be helpful to have data tables ready or some calculations performed as well. "Up to date" also means leaving lab with your protocol and any amendments you made to it, data, and perhaps some interpretation entered in your notebooks. Your notebook does not need a table of contents, but you should realize that most research notebooks do.

4. Permanent

Use pen when you write in your notebooks.

Some Other Things You Should Know About Lab Notebooks

• They are the property of the research lab itself. Researchers who join the lab after you have left it will get to know you through the notebooks you have kept there. Ideally, your notebooks will reflect your most organized, clear and thoughtful side.
• They are legal documents. Labs in industry have special rules about lab notebooks since patent disputes and court cases often hinge on lab notebook entries.
• They are both personal and public. It is considered impolite and an invasion of privacy to read someone else's notebook without their permission. Most people are happy to show you their notebooks when asked.

Evaluation: Grading your Notebook

Your notebook pages will be evaluated by looking for these components:

LAB NOTEBOOK
Date of experiment
Module/Day #
Title for experiment
Brief statement of purpose
Protocol (note the Things to Remember below)
Tables for data entry
Calculations entered
Data labeled
Summary/Interpretation
Initials of all group members

Things to Remember

Remember the goal of your notebook is to help you repeat your experiments with the same results. Information you should record includes:

• Centrifuge settings: temperature, speed, time
• Incubator settings: temperature, time, and shaking speed if applicable
• Size and types of tubes used
• Buffers (and their pH)
• Media
• Dilutions and how they were prepared
• Concentrations
• Volumes used
• Washes: number, volumes, temperature, solutions used
• Antibody: dilutions, lot or tube #s
• Electrophoresis: agarose or acrylamide percentages, voltages, times
• The names of people who helped you with your experiment

You should also note any changes to the protocol such as:

• unexpected delays ("waterbath wasn't ready so tubes kept on ice for one hour")
• unanticipated conditions ("roller drum found off in AM")
• unusual observations ("a large number of cells seemed to be floating").

 

Put it into Practice: Setting Up Your Scientific Notebook

1. Obtain a bound notebook, such as a composition book. Spiral notebooks are not acceptable.
2. Use only blue or black pen to make entries. NO PENCIL ALLOWED.
3. Label the outside of your notebook with the information:
   • Names
   • Course and Section
   • Semester
4. Make pages 1-4 the Table of Contents. Write “Table of Contents” at the top of each of these pages. Record the title of each lab or entry and the page number for each.
5. Each page in the notebook must be numbered. Number each page of the notebook in the upper corner with the first page of the notebook being “page 1.” The back of the first page will be “page 2” and so on. 
6. Record the date of each entry at the top of each page.
7. All group members present should initial the bottom of each page.
8. For each experiment (or activity) that you perform, you should include the:
   • purpose for the experiment 
   • the materials and methods you use 
   • any data tables 
   • figures or graphs properly labeled with a title, and a conclusion.
9. Do not erase errors. Just draw a single line through an erroneous entry, then add your initials. Enter the correct entry nearby.
10. Never leave blank spaces. Draw a diagonal line through all open or blank space.
11. If an entry continues on a different page, include “go to page ____” on the bottom right hand of the page to let the reader know where the rest of the information is located.
12. Graphs and other small sheets of paper can be pasted into the notebook using tape.
13. Always include enough details for someone else to successfully duplicate the work you have recorded.
14. Label all figures, tables and calculations. Figures should be labeled on the bottom left and tables are labeled on the top left.
15. Never remove pages from your notebook.

 

Practice Activity

Your instructor will provide information and data to enter into your notebook.

1. Work with your group to record an appropriate entry and data analysis. 

2. Review the guidelines above and determine whether your entry meets the criteria.

 

 

 

Introduction and Set-up Attribution 

• 1.1: Lab Safety and Laboratory Notebook by Orange County Biotechnology Education Collaborative, is licensed Public Domain