Physical Notebooks  |  Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs)

Lab notebooks, whether in print or electronic form, are a critical component of tracking and recording research. Consistent documentation of your research methods, calculations, and results is important not only for your personal use, but will help when you publish or otherwise share research, and when others want to reproduce what you have done.

* This guide is a starting point; there may be additional requirements and expectations for specific types of research, such as for clinical trials, or drug discovery.

Physical Notebooks

Do:

  • use a bound notebook
  • write legibly
  • write in ink
  • explain acronyms, trademarks, code or unfamiliar jargon
  • attach to your lab notebook loose notes, emails, letters, graphs, figures and charts containing any part of conception of an idea or result of an experiment
  • title, sign and date each attachment, as well as each laboratory notebook page
  • record the objective of an experiment as well as the results obtained in as much detail as possible
  • record thoughts, conversations, lab meeting discussions, contractor oral reports and discussions, as well as wild speculations and future plans
  • write in the active voice
  • report completed experiments in the past tense
  • give cross references to previous experiments and/or projects
  • use a table of contents to provide cross references
  • keep your lab notebook under lock and key when you are not in the lab
  • track and save completed lab notebooks

Do not:

  • use binders, loose leaf or spiral notebooks
  • blot out or erase mistakes
  • modify the data
  • rip pages out
  • skip pages
  • leave a page blank
  • cover any writings in the notebook by affixing graphs and/or charts over them
  • write in the passive voice

Electronic Lab Notebooks

Do:

  • clearly define what you/your lab mean by electronic notebooks: To some, data generated on a computer and affixed to a paper notebook is an electronic notebook. To others, saving data on the desktop or hard drive of their computer is an electronic lab notebook. Yet to a third group, a particular software, e.g., LabTrack, is an electronic notebook
  • adopt an official procedure for electronic record keeping. Who will be the custodian of the electronically stored data? Is there a backup?
  • back up and write protect all electronic data
  • retain all electronic copies for the duration of the appropriate document retention period
  • store your electronic notebook contents on unchangeable mediums, e.g., CDR, or in an electronic archive that cannot be modified
  • use software/ hardware which prevents editing the original document, i.e., WORM (Write Once, Read Many)
  • time stamp your entries.
  • restrict access to the electronic notebook using key and screen locks, and/or passcodes.
  • associate the identity of each author and/or witness with each record automatically

Do not:

  • create and store records randomly on disks, desktops, or hard drives
  • store records on media that have limited shelf-life
  • allow access to the electronic records by unauthorized personnel
  • rely on methods of dating your entries that can be altered
  • alter any portion of an electronic document


Source: Guide for Keeping Laboratory Records was originally published by the National Cancer Institute.