Title: Keeping a Laboratory Book
1 - Keeping a Laboratory Book
Abdul Rahman Omar Institute of BioScience Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine Universiti Putra
Malaysia Tel 603-89472102 Fax
603-89472101 E-mail aro_at_ibs.upm.edu.my
2What is a Lab Book?
- Complete record of procedures, reagents, data,
and thoughts to pass on to other researchers - Why experiments were initiated, how performed,
and results, comments - Place to compile data/charts/photos/ideas
- Place of clues, to troubleshoot problems
- Place to observe whole picture and think
- Legal document, to prove patents
- Defense against accusations of fraud or lawsuits
3Type and Format
- Ultimately dictated by your project
leader/company
4Physical Characteristics of a Good Lab Book
- Large, 8.5x11 at least (attaching stuff)
- Bound (stitched) pages to ensure integrity
- Numbered pages
- White gridded
- Acid free paper (30 years)
- Written in Pen (gel pens are good).
5http//www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/images/p
enexp2.jpg
6How Important?
- In case of Lab Fire
- Grab the Lab Books!
7For Every Experiment, Record
- Start Date on all pages
- Title
- Why Brief statement of purpose
- How
- Protocol with reference of origin, calculations
- What Happened
- All that happens (protocol changes)
- Taped in Information or keep an associated
folder - What It Means
- Your interpretation (summation with oddities and
comments) - Whats Next
8Attached Materials
- Computer generated data
- Photographic data
- Printed graphs (make as you go)
- Datasheet templates
- Product labels
- Who provided plasmids, etc.
- Notes (or pasted copies) of discussions,
conversations, emails, readings related to expt
design or goals - Archive locations of plasmids, probes, etc.
- X-rays and other large items may be kept in a
separate folder if they dont fit in the lab
notebook. - Always write on these materials the date and
other identifying information in case they get
separated!
9Frequently Forgotten Information
- Serum lot number
- Antibody titer
- Other people involved
- Centrifuge model, speed, temp
- Incubation time
- washes
- Tube size and type
- Unexpected delays
- Growth medium used
- Buffer pH
- Calculations
- Initial cells
- Age/passage culture
- Gel
- Growth stage Bact.
- Condition of cells used
10Characteristics Helpful for Filing a Patent
- In US, patents on intellectual property are
awarded not by the first to file, but first to
invent first to record! But... - In EU, patent belongs to first to file
- Sign and date each entry
- Have an independent witness sign and date each
entry - Do not change entries (make a new entry
cross-reference to prior entry) - Use past tense
- Never remove original pages or attachments
- Record all discussions/meetings/ideas relevant to
the project - Record as much detail as possible
- http//www.invention-protection.com/ip/publication
s/docs/A_Primer_On_Lab_Notebooks.html
11The importance of timing
- Always record, update, review
- Record as you go
- Input paper towel and post-it info ASAP!
- At the LATEST, insert data the next day!
- Do a weekly checkup
- 1 hour to review
- Make sure everything is attached securely, all
summaries written, future directions written,
record in table of contents
12Tips to Preserve Data Integrity
- Never, ever, remove a page
- Fill consecutive pages
- Cross out unused parts of pages
- Record all info as accurately as possible.
- Do NOT omit any result, no matter how odd.
- Cross out mistakes lightly (might need to
recover) - Write legibly
- Put a full date (international date problems)
with month spelled out.
13(No Transcript)
14Taken from Linus Pauling Research Notebooks,
http//osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rn
b/index.html
15References
- Kathy Barker, At the Bench A laboratory
Navigator. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory press.
1998. - Guidelines for Keeping a Laboratory Record.
David Caprette, Rice University.
http//www.ruf.rice.edu/bioslabs/tools/notebook/n
otebook.html - Guidelines for Keeping a Laboratory Notebook.
Colin Purrington, Swarthmore Univ.
http//www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/notebook
advice.htm - Laboratory Record Keeping. Todd E. Garabedian,
Nature Biotechnology v. 15 (August 1997)
pp.799-800http//biotech.about.com/gi/dynamic/off
site.htm?sitehttp3A2F2Fwww.wiggin.com2Fpubs2
Farticles_template.asp3FID3D102187242000 - Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Dept. of
Health and Human Services http//www.unh.edu/rcr/
- Responsible Conduct of Research Online Study
Guide. Julie Simpson, University of New
Hampshire http//www.unh.edu/rcr/ - Francis L. Macrina, Scientific Integrity An
Introductory Text with Cases. ASM Press. 2000.
16Guidelines For The Use of Laboratory Book
Laboratory Book Universiti Putra Malaysia
17Why need to keep Lab Book
- To maintain and continuously improve the quality
of research - MS ISO90012008 system requirement
- The lab book has been designed to address the
requirement of design and development of research
(MS ISO90012008 clause 7.3) - Monitoring of research progress by different
processes - Review
- Verification
- Validation (in some research that involved
validation of prototypes, software, modules, etc)
18Keeping Laboratory Book
- Laboratory Book Format
- Some examples
- http//www.ibs.upm.edu.my/ibsbi/note.html
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