Good Laboratory Records & Documentation

Authenticity and reliability are the key components of recognition for both traditional and electronic laboratory notebooks in a court of law. Good record keeping is important for defending patents as well as scientific misconduct.

Entry Recording

• All laboratory information should be recorded with indelible ink in a bound notebook. The information should include the hypothesis, materials and methods, data and conclusions.
• Every page should be pre-numbered and used.
• Do not leave blank spaces, erase information or remove pages when adding or deleting information. Instead, draw a line through the information, provide an explanation for the change and sign and date the change.
• Charts, labels or any other materials that need to be included, must be permanently glued into your notebook.
• Large quantities of computer-generated data should be bound and witnessed on every page.

Witness Corroboration

• The person who worked on and recorded the experiments in the notebook must sign every page in the notebook: “Recorded by me” (signature) and the date.
• A witness who is technically competent (principal investigator, colleague or graduate student) but did not work on or was unconnected with the research project. The witness should be knowledgeable about the project and should corroborate the entries by reading, co-signing and dating all entries.
• Corroboration should be completed at least once every two weeks. Many labs host periodic “Notebook Witnessing Days” in order to keep their records up to date

Use, Supervision, and Retention of Lab Notebooks

• All laboratory notebooks should be numbered in consecutive order and/or under each scientist’s name.
• The principal investigator or laboratory director should supervise each technician or graduate student with notebook entries.
• All research data including laboratory notebooks are property of the University. Additional information is available in ECU’s Policy on Ownership, Retention, & Access to Research Data & Records. http://www.research2.ecu.edu/OSP/datamangementpolicy.htm

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks: Pros, Cons, and Recommendations
The courts have not fully addressed legality of electronic records; however, acceptable practices at many organizations include:

• Print electronic data on a regular basis.
• Every page intended as evidence, must be signed, dated, and witnessed in the same manner as traditional laboratory notebooks.
• Alternatively, data may be stored in an optical format (Write Once, Read Many or WORM). Although this may be more reliable than other electronic notebooks, it does not remove the witnessing requirements.