Notebook

[N1DERL&]

Hi all!

What a terrific idea for a forum.

My question is really basic, so sorry to all the veterans. Part of my grade for research is my notebook. I don't have any lab experience.

I don't know what format to use, what information I should be writing down, when I should be writing stuff down, nada. I would appreciate if someone could either point me in the right direction or share how a notebook should be kept.

I asked my PI about it and he was very general about it and I couldn't get any details from him.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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[amd26]

hi,
the format of a lab nb can differ among which lab you're in, i have worked in four labs and what is to be expected differs. in general you want to include the following (by the way this is what i use now, it works for me):

date and title on the first line
then you want to write out your protocol
include photos, blots, etc
include imp stuff. like antibody titer used for a western (you would be surprised how many people leave stuff like that out)
include conclusion, ie did it work or not, if not than what do suggest you'll do differently next time.

note: in general you want to include things that if someone else were to repeat your exp. they can pick up your nb and repeat it with no problem.

hope that helps,
anna

 

[Hurricane]

Yes, it differs from lab to lab, and person to person, but what worked best for me was a binder system, with preprinted data and protocol sheets that I made ahead of time. For example, I did a lot of immunocytochemistry with the same basic protocols, so I made protocol sheets in word with everything typed out, with spaces to fill in the antibody concentrations and incubation times and such.

If some of your data is kept somewhere else (boxes of microscope slides, computer files, etc) write down on the protocol sheet where to find it.

Some people like to keep one notebook for everything, but I had several different projects going on at once, and I prefer different notebooks for each project.

Just try to imagine somebody picking up your notebook 5 years from now. Try to make it so that they could repeat your experiment and find the results without having to track you down. You cannot be too anal.

 

[Adcadet]

I've kept lab notebooks very similar to what amd26 has described. I've also typed stuff out in Word, printed it out, and then tape it in, in addition to print outs of my data.

In my latest clinical epi project I kept a "notebook" by creating a Word document each day (sometimes an AM and PM version) with what I was trying to do, what I actually did, what the results were, what my interpretations were, etc. I even copied and pasted in emails between me and my PI, since many of our ideas were exchanged over email. I would burn the data files and daily logs to a CD, and each time I met with my PI he would copy my stuff onto his computer so we both had access to the info. In the writing and revision process I've had to go back to figure out what I did a number of times, and it's worked out reasonably well. When this project finally ends I might go back and convert each .doc to a .pdf to try to avoid such a proprietary format, just in case researchers in the future abandon the MS Word format.

How do others keep a "lab notebook" for epi projects?

 

[Adcadet]

I've kept lab notebooks very similar to what amd26 has described. I've also typed stuff out in Word, printed it out, and then tape it in, in addition to print outs of my data.

In my latest clinical epi project I kept a "notebook" by creating a Word document each day (sometimes an AM and PM version) with what I was trying to do, what I actually did, what the results were, what my interpretations were, etc. I even copied and pasted in emails between me and my PI, since many of our ideas were exchanged over email. I would burn the data files and daily logs to a CD, and each time I met with my PI he would copy my stuff onto his computer so we both had access to the info. In the writing and revision process I've had to go back to figure out what I did a number of times, and it's worked out reasonably well. When this project finally ends I might go back and convert each .doc to a .pdf to try to avoid such a proprietary format, just in case researchers in the future abandon the MS Word format.

How do others keep a "lab notebook" for epi projects?