![]() ![]() Some will regard this as a bad lab practice, so it’s up to your needs and your organization’s requirements.ĭue to the formal nature of the official lab notebook and its methodical entry approach, writing well and neatly as you go along can be challenging. Make use of a secondary, unofficial notebook When you get started with yours, find out from your principal investigator what their preferences are and look up the standard’s on your institution’s website.ģ. For instance, some universities might require the date, page number and the purpose of your entry followed by the methods used and results observed. Get familiar with your institution’s preferred structuring.ĭifferent organizations have different requirements for how to maintain and organize your lab notebook. Delaying your entries will cause a major backlog.Ģ. Remember, your lab notebook is also a reference to others, which will need easily read by others. Avoid post-it notes and scrap paper for informal notetaking.Draw a clear line through a mistake instead. Avoid the chore mentality of lab notebook entries.In any case, it’s easy to break bad notebook habits by first recognizing a few examples of them. Other bad habits are formed from poor examples, poor guidelines or poor time management. Some of these habits stem from simply not knowing a better way. It is very easy to form bad habits when keeping a lab notebook. When a lab notebook isn’t properly organized or maintained, you’ll find yourself scrambling to figure out what sample went into the 4 th lane of your gel, or why you ran a PCR for the specific primers you chose, or did you run an ELISA – you remember running that ELISA, but you can’t remember when or find the paper towel you wrote the details on (yes a paper towel – bad habits must be broken quickly). Can help defend your intellectual property, particularly when it comes to patents.Allows you to answer specific experimental questions.Becomes a helpful troubleshooting tool.Serves as a log of all observations and anomalies.Serves as the building blocks of your research paper’s methods, results and conclusion.Maintains the reasoning behind your experimental flow.Promotes reproducibility not just for other researchers but for yourself as well.These standards are deemed necessary by your organization in order to ensure scientific conduct and reproducibility.īeyond that, however, are several other reasons a formal record is crucial (Hunter & Hughey, 2007): Furthermore, the formal nature of the laboratory notebook ensures certain records are always made and that they’re made the same way. Why keeping a formal laboratory notebook is importantĭetailed notes are the only way to keep track of what you did and how you did it. However, by incorporating these tips at the get-go will minimize the error portion. In the beginning, when first keeping a lab notebook, there can be a lot of trial and error. A well-kept laboratory notebook not only leads to effective reporting but it also reduces headache. It serves almost as a rudimentary draft of your research story. Your lab notebook is a foundation to your research manuscript. ![]()
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