Mit Laboratory Notebook

LabNotebookInstructions.
doc
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
2.671 Measurement and Instrumentation
Instructions for Using Your Laboratory Notebook
Please read before coming to Lab 3. You will receive a lab notebook at that time.
Why is it Important to Keep a Good Laboratory Notebook?
Keeping a complete and accurate record of experimental methods and data is a vital part of
science and engineering. Your laboratory notebook is a permanent record of what you did and
what you observed in the laboratory. Learning to keep a good notebook now will establish good
habits that will serve you throughout your career. Your notebook should be like a diary,
recording what you do, and why you did it. You should feel free to record your mistakes and
difficulties performing the experiment - you will frequently learn more from these failures, and
your attempts to correct them, than from an experiment that works perfectly the first time. It is
extremely important that your notebook accurately record everything you did. A good test of
your work is the following question: could someone else, with an equivalent technical
background to your own, use your notebook to repeat your work, and obtain the same results?
For that matter, could you come back six months later, read your notes, and make sense of
them? If you can answer yes to these two questions, you are keeping a good notebook.
It is also important to maintain a good laboratory notebook in order to protect your
intellectual property (e.g. patents). An appropriately maintained laboratory notebook can often
mean the difference between gaining or not gaining recognition for a discovery. U.S. patent law
states that inventorship is determined by the "first to invent," not the "first to file." The
laboratory notebook can be the key piece of evidence in helping to make that determination.
http://www.auburn.edu/research/vpr/communications/resnews/nov01.html
The laboratory notebook forms a permanent record that can be referred to while completing
a disclosure report (often the first step in patent preparation) and later, provides accurate
documentation of the work done. When an investigator makes an invention during the course of
a research project, the dates of the conception and reduction to practice (turning an idea into a
reality) become very important. Generally, a sketch and a brief written description are sufficient
to establish conception. Reduction to practice is accomplished by actually constructing and
successfully testing a material or device incorporating the invention.
During prosecution of a patent application before the U.S. Patent Office, or even after
issuance of a patent, the filing of another patent application may initiate an interference
proceeding to determine which party was the first to invent. Each party has an opportunity to
submit documentary proof of his or her dates of conception and reduction to practice. A
laboratory notebook may be, and in several high-profile cases has been the crucial piece of
evidence in this procedure.
p. 1 of 6
© IW Hunter and BJ Hughey, 6/5/07
LabNotebookInstructions.doc
Rules for Maintaining your Laboratory Notebook
Leave several pages blank at the beginning

for a Table of Contents and update it when
you start each new experiment or topic
Always use pen and write neatly and clearly
Date every page on the top outside corner
Start each new topic (experiment, notes,

calculation, etc.) on a right-side (odd
numbered) page
DATE Record the TITLE and OBJECTIVES of each

TITLE
Objectives and/or experiment (or notes or calculations) at the
purpose of
experiment
top of the first page of the notebook
dedicated to this topic.
R = 3.256 Ω
If you make a mistake, don’t obliterate it!
3.526 You may need to read your mistake later –
perhaps you were right the first time!
R = 3.256 Ω Use a single cross out and EXPLAIN why it
3.526 miswrote
was an error.
Data typed into the computer must be
printed and taped into your lab notebook.
Plots of data made in lab should also be
printed and taped in your lab notebook.
When you record an observation in your
When I did…. notebook, include an explanation of what you
or
Step 2.4.1… were doing at the time. If appropriate, you
I measured the may just record the step number in the
following….
instructions followed by your observation.
p. 2 of 6
You must have your lab notebook signed by

Dr. Hughey or your lab professor before you
leave lab each day. Any pages not signed on
the day the experiment was performed will
adversely affect your lab notebook grade
Metric Requirements Worth

Pen Write in pen, not pencil 10%
Date Date every page at the top 10%
Right Side Begin each experiment on odd page 10%
Printouts Attach printouts and plots of data as needed 10%
Obvious care taken to make it readable,
Legible 10%
even if you have bad handwriting
Mistakes Mistakes crossed out with one line and explained 10%
Organized table of contents
title of experiment on 1st page
20%
objectives of experiment
clear from notebook what you were doing when
Informative all required data and information
20%
descriptive comments of your observations
p. 3 of 6
Example: Complete Experiment

Do not copy the words from this example into your notebook – some of the experimental
procedure has changed!
Experiment starts
First Page: Date at top on an odd page
outer corner
Experiment number
and title clearly stated
Clear statement of
purpose
Spec sheet taped

into lab notebook
Succinct description of
procedure.
The step number from
the instructions could
also be listed
Notebook signed on same

day as experiment performed p. 4 of 6
Second page for Example 1
Date at top
outer corner Description of something
that went wrong in the
experiment and what was
done to correct the problem
Identification of which
member of the team did
which task.
Schematic drawing
makes clear to what the
measured resistances
R1 and R2 refer.
Model number of
the power supply
specified
Computation:
1. Intermediate steps shown
2. Errors crossed out with a single line and an explanation (“calculator error”).
p. 5 of 6
Remaining pages for Example 1:
Error crossed off

with explanation
Answer to the question

posed by the experiment
Key points in this example:

1. Neat and legible handwriting
2. Experiment title and purpose clearly stated
3. Procedure described clearly and succinctly, including errors and the steps taken to correct
them
4. Computations performed neatly showing intermediate steps
5. Errors crossed out with a single line and explained
6. All pages dated at the top and signed by lab professor on the same date
p. 6 of 6

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LabNotebookInstructions.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Rules for Maintaining your Laboratory Notebook

Leave several pages blank at the beginning

Always use pen and write neatly and clearly

Date every page on the top outside corner

Start each new topic (experiment, notes,

DATE Record the TITLE and OBJECTIVES of each

You must have your lab notebook signed by

Metric Requirements Worth

Example: Complete Experiment

Spec sheet taped

Notebook signed on same

Remaining pages for Example 1:

Error crossed off

Answer to the question

Key points in this example:

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