Keeping a Laboratory Book

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• Keeping a Laboratory Book

Abdul Rahman Omar Institute of BioScience Faculty
of Veterinary Medicine Universiti Putra
Malaysia Tel [phone] Fax
603-89472101 E-mail aro_at_ibs.upm.edu.my
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What 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

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Type and Format

• Ultimately dictated by your project
  leader/company

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Physical 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).

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http//www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/images/p
enexp2.jpg
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How Important?

• In case of Lab Fire
• Grab the Lab Books!

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For 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

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Attached 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!

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Frequently 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

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Characteristics 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

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The 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

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Tips 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.

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Taken from Linus Pauling Research Notebooks,
http//osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rn
b/index.html
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References

• 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.

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Guidelines For The Use of Laboratory Book
Laboratory Book Universiti Putra Malaysia
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Why 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)

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Keeping Laboratory Book

• Laboratory Book Format
• Some examples
• http//www.ibs.upm.edu.my/ibsbi/note.html

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• Thank You