Lab notebook

[sam_1]

Hi everyone:)

Starting biology PhD in September, will be doing fairly long rotations for the first year, which will hopefully

flow into a research project.

Any ideas/suggestions regarding keeping a lab notebook: I tried during undergrad projects but always got a bit lazy

and struggled to keep it neat. Also, seems weird writing things that aren't of much consequence....

Should I rather type it up daily and file, or use an app, or just a regular notebook?

[syn2012]

Your program, and individual PI, will likely have a very strict policy about what you can and cannot do with your lab notebook. You don't mess around with this stuff. Issues of IP are taken very seriously.

[Eigen]

One of our labs has a strict "notebooks don't leave the lab" policy.

But yeah, each PI will have their own ideas about this, and likely supply the notebooks. You're going to want a hard copy notebook, very few people deal with digital copies, from my experience, outside of industry.

Remember that you aren't writing things down for reference In a few days, but rather in a few years. You never know what data you might need down the road, so keep all of it documented now- not just data and observations, but also trains of though/decisions pertinent to your research.

Also, remember that these aren't just for you- but for every grad student that follows after you to have a reference back to your procedures and work. So write them so they can be read and followed by a 3rd party.

It takes a while to reach a flow, but it's totally worthwhile.

[sam_1]

Agreed, thanks - my honors project supervisor was very relaxed about keeping the lab book, and I normally just kept loads of raw data and graphs on my laptop, but a PhD will require much more discipline. WIll also have to be a little less 'OCD' about it, and resist the urge to throw the whole

thing away if there's a smudge or something

[UnlikelyGrad]

I use a hard-copy notebook and it never leaves the building. (My advisor lets me take it to my office for data crunching, but normally it's up in lab.) When I go out in the field I have a separate hard-copy notebook that comes with me. This stays in my office unless I'm out at sea. When I graduate, both of these notebooks will stay behind. That's the rule. (My predecessors' notebooks are all sitting on a shelf in our lab.)

[Eigen]

Our PI isn't as strict about notebooks not leaving the lab, but it's definitely the case that when you leave your notebooks stay for the next generation to use.

That said, I have several different notebooks as well- one I was keeping at our medical school campus to document all the cell work, and another that I was keeping uptown for all of my synthetic work.

Even after I moved most of my biological work back into my lab, I kept the notebooks separate, and it's really helped keep things straight. All of my syntheses are neatly organized in one book, and all of my biological assays in another- it really helps knowing where I should go to look something up.

Also, no matter what system you use, actually keep up with your table of contents. It doesn't seem like a big deal at the beginning, but when you're several years in and looking for some particular piece of information from 3 lab notebooks ago, you want to be able to find it pretty easily.

I completely understand the OCD nature- it was something I had to get over. Similarly, I had to get over worrying about filling up too much space- It's worth it to fill up a notebook and move on, and make sure you get all the details.

I do keep a separate 3 ring binder with all of my spectra, certificates of analysis, and data analysis. I keep it ordered and tabbed, and each page is referenced to a specific page of a specific notebook- I prefer this to taping things into my notebook directly.