Lab Notebook Information

How to Keep a Good Lab Notebook

The lab notebook is the scientist’s most important tool. It is used to record the information required for any person with at least your level of technical understanding to reproduce your work exactly. Details to record include your procedure, observations, and data. The lab notebook must be neat, organized and a complete record of what you do in the lab.

The notebook should be bound, never loose-leaf, and the pages numbered consecutively. Purchase a “Composition Book” for this purpose. They can be had for $1 or less at office supply stores. Write in ink, never with a pencil. Neatness is essential. Keep your records according to the guidelines below.

1. Save 2 pages at the beginning of the notebook for a table of contents. Number the pages as you use them. When you begin a new project, start on a new page, and list it in the Table of Contents with the page number.
2. Give dates of all work—begin each session of lab work by entering the date in the notebook. If you think that the timing of steps may be important, enter the time you begin each important operation.
3. It is not acceptable to keep notes—any notes of lab actions, observations, and data—on scrap paper. Your notebook is your scrap paper.
4. This is the most important thing for a good notebook: it must contain enough detail that someone unfamiliar with the experiment can perform it by following your notes, using your observations to help them see if all is going well.
5. You should develop the habit of recording your notes at regular intervals throughout your work. It is not acceptable to work for the whole period and then try to summarize your work—too much detail is lost. Of course, your writing must be legible.
6. If you are working in a group, write down who did what. Each member of a lab group must take their own notes. Do not leave all recording duty to one person, expecting to copy it down later. You may notice something important that no one else notices. Also, you may never get a chance to copy down the information before the lab report is due!
7. Avoid leaving any blank pages. Try to place diagrams and calculations near the text that describes them. Graphs or tables printed by computer should be neatly taped to the page and positioned so that they can be easily read from the bottom of the page or from the right hand edge. All tables and graphs should have titles that explain what they are.
8. Writing the report will be a matter of organizing entries taken from your notebook, if your notebook is neat and includes the necessary information.
9. If you are working on a project I assigned for you to do at home, keep notes on it in your lab notebook.
10. Write using a pen with permanent ink; never use a pencil. If you make an error, cross it out with a single stroke (like this). Do not erase or black out your mistakes.
11. Neatness, organization, spelling and grammar count! Your lab notebook must clearly record everything someone would need to know to reproduce your work. All data and information in the lab notebook must be presented with logical organization. Everything you write should be in grammatically correct, complete English sentences.

Grading the Notebook

Factors that affect your notebook score are completeness, clarity, and legibility. Completeness means that your notes not only describe what you did (including your final calculations, and results), but they also record your observations of what happened as a result of your action(s). One of the most common deficiencies in lab notebooks is the failure to record observations. Dont’t let that happen to you!

Lab notebooks are worth 1 lab grade for each quarter. Feedback will be given over the course of the quarter and the grade will be assigned near the end of the quarter.