P.J.
Hansen Home Page
PJ Hansen Main Page Animal Sciences Home Page University of Florida
MAINTENANCE OF LAB NOTEBOOKS
IN THE LABORATORY OF P.J. HANSEN
General Guidelines | Pagination
| Details to Record | Sample
Pages
Maintenance
of a well documented notebook is critical for doing molecular and cellular
research. In a well-prepared notebook,
all of the pertinent details of an experiment can be easily retrieved by the
researcher and by any one else who reads the notebook. Moreover, it should be possible to write a
paper from the data in the notebook without reference to any other data
sources.
The lab
notebook is the scientist’s ultimate guarantor of his work. You should be proud of it and have it in a
format that allows any trained scientist to verify what you have done. Many times, lab notebooks have found their
way into court rooms and congressional hearings. Too often, a scientist has been publically
embarrassed (see the discovery of HIV) or worse (see the David Baltimore case)
because of the state of their notebooks.
The
It is
expected that everyone who works in the lab will follow these guidelines. It is a condition of working in the lab!
All
laboratory notes are to be maintained in Nalgene Laboratory Notebooks provided
to you. Label each notebook with your
initials or name and with a volume number (numbered consecutively). It is not acceptable to use other types of
storage materials (three ring binders, slips of paper) to store the primary
research records you develop in the lab.
Everything
you do in the lab should go in your notebook including failed experiments. Details of these may be helpful in
troubleshooting procedures.
It is
acceptable to take temporary notes for later use in transcribing permanent
records in your notebook. However, everything you do in a week should
be recorded in your permanent notebook by the end of the week.
It is
also appropriate to type up your notes using Word, WordPerfect, etc. and to
graph your data with Sigma Plot or Excel and to paste these notes directly in
the notebook. If you do so, I still
expect you to follow the pagination system and other procedures.
If you
collect photographs, autoradiograms, fluorograms, as part of your experiment, put
it into the lab notebook. Don’t
paste it or tape it in though if you amy need to photograph it later. Use a paper clip.
Don’t
use the lab notebooks to post statistical analyses of data. The notebooks are for the original data - SAS
files can be placed in a three-ringed binder.
It is
better to put too many details in the notebook rather than not enough detail.
Take
your time in making entries and write in good English with good penmanship (in
this matter, do as I say and not as I do).
Write
in pen. If you make a mistake, cross out
the error and write the corrected statement.
Don’t erase the data.
The
guidelines listed here are designed for laboratory experiments. The types of records collected from field
trials are much different. For these
experiments, it is acceptable and often preferable to use three ringed binders
in conjunction with data collection forms or worksheets to collect data. Nonetheless, all details of an experiment
should be recorded for field trials as well including the exact protocol to be
followed, sources of drugs and supplies, deviations from the protocol, etc. and
data should be organized in a way that can be easily understood.
Entries
into notebooks should be in the form of chapters, with each chapter describing
a particular experiment or procedure. Do not make chapters overly long
(e.g.,your entire Ph.D. project) or too small.
For example, if you are doing repeated runs of a particular western
blot, each run should be a separate chapter.
Similarly, each IVF run should be a separate chapter. Conversely, if you
are purifying a protein, the entire procedure can be one chapter - don’t
have separate chapters for dialysis, ion exchange, electrophoresis, etc.
Each
time a new chapter is created, it should be recorded in the table of contents
at the beginning of each notebook.
Don’t
try to estimate how many pages a particular procedure will require. Rather, each time you start a new chapter,
start it on the nearest free page. When
you finish one page of a chapter, just go to the next free page to continue
description of the experiment. The
notebook is designed to allow you to do this since each page has a blank on the
upper right labeled “Continued from Page ____ and another blank on the
lower right labeled “Continued on Page ___”.
Date
the page on the bottom using the date on which the first step in the procedure
was made. It is not required in our lab
but it is a good idea to sign each page. Some laboratories, especially for work
that needs to be scrutinized by the FDA, it is required to sign each page and
to initial and date each alteration in notebook records.
When a
notebook is filled, an index for that volume should be created where page
numbers describing experiment topics are grouped. For example, if the volume had experiments on
effects of heat shock on embryonic development, effect of IL-1 on apoptosis and
development of a Na/K ATPase in situ hybridization procedure, list those three
entries in the index and after each entry list the page numbers for each
experiment in that category.
The
page numbers of the notebook should be used to identify the following - samples
stored in the freezer, gels and blots, microscopic specimens, embedded tissues,
and any other item produced in the lab that is to be permanently stored and
where the details in the notebook are important to understanding exactly what
the item is.
Details
that Should Be Recorded
Each chapter should include the following: purpose, materials, methods,
results, and conclusions.
The
purpose is important for other readers of the notebook and should describe why
the procedure is being done.
The
materials section should include complete description of buffers, columns (when
poured, dimensions, buffer), reagents (including the vendor for non-common
reagents) and samples used (including pertinent page numbers describing how
samples were prepared).
The
methods section should be complete. If the procedure is a simple repeat of an
earlier procedure, refer back to the pertinent page number of the original
procedure description (or to the title of one of the lab’s standard
laboratory protocols) and mention any
variations from the procedure done previously. Be thorough and organized in
your description. Three useful formats for procedures are (l) flow charts, (2)
numbered step-by-step descriptions and (3) tables listing reagents added to
assays.
Results
should be recorded graphically or in tabular format. Don’t use abbreviations for what is
being measured unless you define the abbreviation somewhere.
There should be a conclusion for each chapter even
if interpretation of results are obvious.
Among
the details that should be included (either directly or by reference to other
chapters) are the following:
For
protein purification: sample origin, protein concentration, method used to
determine proetin concentration and standard used in assay, sample buffer,
column (for gel filtration, identified by pour date), column size, column
calibration, fraction size, and exact tubes pooled for subsequent steps.
For
electrophoresis: the acrylamide composition of the gels, the exact description
of what is loaded in each gel (identify, volume and protein mass), the type of
molecular weight standards used, and how samples were prepared for
electrophoresis.
For
IVF: the number of ovaries slashed, number of oocytes recovered, number of
oocytes recovered after maturation, number of oocytes placed in fertilization
drops (number per drop and total number of drops), fertilization time, bulls
used to fertilize, fertilization rate, size of culture drops, number of embryos
per drop, cleavage rate, and percent blastocyst, any deviations from standard
protocol.
For experiments involving antisera or antibodies:
describe each antibody or antiserum in detail (source, the antigen used to
raise the antibody, the species the antibody is made in, the antibody isotype,
the pool, batch or clone number, where it was obtained, the antibody isotype).
Often these details can be inserted in the notebook by copying records provided
by the company (if the antibody is purchased).
Also describe the antibody dilution, the exact description of each
buffer, the exact conditions for each incubation step (time and temperature).
Sample Pages of Good Notebook
Entries
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Table of Contents
Modified
6-4-03. Original material © Peter J.
Hansen. Links to commercial sites do not constitute endorsement by the authors
or the University of Florida. Website
maintained by Peter J. Hansen 
