What Is a Non Spiral Composition Book Lab Type?

Keeping an accurate record of experiments is part of working in a lab. Laboratory notebooks are extremely valuable to individuals and institutions when it comes to patent law; patents are granted on the basis of who was first to conceive of an idea. This idea must be recorded in a notebook that is signed and dated. There are very specific rules about laboratory notebooks --- they cannot be glued, have spiral binding, or be loose-leaf; they must be bound and stitched.

Format

Because of patent law and the need to document data related to drug development for the FDA, industry and academia are very precise about what is required of laboratory notebooks. The notebook should be hard bound and stitched and the pages numbers should fall sequentially. Each notebook is assigned a unique number that is often printed on the binding. Typically, they are large enough that sheets of data can be attached to the pages. The scientist's name, date and project go on the first page, followed by several pages for a table of contents. The title of the experiment and what page it is continued from is at the top of the page, and what page it continues to is at the bottom. There is a place to sign and date each page at the bottom.

Experiments

All experiments should be prefaced with an explanation of what you intend to do and why. Write everything directly into the notebook. Record experiments even if you believe they were failures --- they may contain valuable information at a later date. Date each entry with a full date, and explain precisely what was done. Record all relevant events, such as temperature, equipment and reagents, number of samples and storage conditions. All observations, calculations, data and graphs should be recorded in the notebook. Finally, write conclusions and ideas about what to do next. Record enough information that the experiment can be understood and reproduced.

Monitorin

Companies usually have a person that monitors laboratory notebooks according to a standard operating procedures. Notebooks are assigned to scientists in numerical order and recorded in a log. There is often a policy that each page of a notebook must be signed and dated by a second scientist that is not directly involved with the project to affirm that the work was done and recorded. For security purposes, notebooks are usually scanned at regular intervals; these scans are kept at a different site.

Cautions

Be sure and use a waterproof pen --- nothing can be more frustrating than loosing data because you have splashed water on the page. Never tear out a page. Don't leave blank pages; always proceed to the next available page. Don't cross out or white-out mistakes; simply draw a single line through them so that the mistakes remain visible. Patent lawyers can assume that you are trying to hide something. Sign and date each page when you reach the bottom of it.