Notebooks record-keeping

The scope of initial training always covers an induction period of perhaps four weeks, during which the trainee learns about the structure of the company which he has joined and the administration which he will be expected to carry out in the field. It is important that he learns about the legislation which applies to his job and the statutory forms which he must use. Surveyors are often required to keep a notebook, the purpose of which is similar to that of a police officer. He will later be required to cover the interests of all the clients who are his district , and he must therefore set up in his home the necessary administrative and record-keeping facilities to enable him to do this effectively and economically. 

A detailed and comprehensive system of record keeping is necessary, including, for example, worksheets, notebooks, computer output and reports, and all of these should be retained for a reasonable period of time or as required by the customer. A period of six years is often chosen. The content of reports and certificates is tightly defined, to ensure that customers receive all relevant information and that the laboratory does not make exaggerated claims about which parts of its work have been accredited. A documented system for dealing with any customer complaints and for informing customers if discrepancies in results are subsequently discovered must be available and in place. 

Record keeping carried out not only by the analyst in laboratory notebooks, but also in logbooks for each instrument. After completion, these should be archived for at least ten years. Records should include the type of sample (with a unique identification number), collection method, location, date, description of sample, preparation and analysis method, and instrumental conditions, original data files, and the name of the person responsible. 

In contrast to the majority of inventors, pharmaceutical companies anticipate the prerequisites of patent application before discovery. In fact, the strategic plan in drug development includes the details of a successful patent assignment. Application requirements are well defined and known. The rules of record keeping and legal verification in the notebook format by the discovery chemist are well documented. Extensive synthesis of a series of analogues... 

Be sure to keep a clear accounting of your procedure for the unknowns in your laboratory notebook. Record your observations for each test run for each ion in each vial. Remember, there is only one kind of cation and one kind of anion in each. As soon as you have identified a cation, no further tests are needed for other cations. The same is true for the anions. You should determine for yourself which tests are the easy tests and run those first. 

The above example is an abbreAdated version in which actual calculation or numerical setups are omitted. For complete record keeping, you should include the computational setups m your notebook so an error can be tracked down later, if necessary. 

In fact, now would be the ideal time to devise a system for network record keeping. It doesn t matter if you use a computer. Palm Pilot, index cards, or a notebook, as long as you keep your list up to date. This network is an invaluable resource that you will replenish and revisit again and again over the course of your professional life. 

These are some of the same questions that are used to evaluate a standard method (see Sections 11.2.8 and 6.5). Accurate record-keeping in the QAP ensures that standard laboratory procednres are docnmented, and accnrate record-keeping in a laboratory notebook ensnres that a written record exists to indicate that said procedures were indeed followed. Althongh it may seem exaggerated, the importance of instituting QA procedures and keeping QA records cannot be overemphasized. 

Record keeping and tracking of exposure and materials can be as simple or as sophisticated as the laboratory needs. A simple card file or notebook system is adequate. By simply numbering the frames and using the row numbers, the location of every specimen exposed can be defined. A card file arranged by month and year can keep track of removals. 

The skin over the small shard healed with no lump, infection, or other trouble, except that when I would shake hands with someone, pressure on the fragment produced some mild pain. I recorded the incident in my notebook while keeping a record of how long I could continue to feel the fiber in my finger. Within three weeks there was no sign that my finger had been injured. This was the first implant test of a phosphate fiber. 

In some cases, a formal chain of custody must be maintained. Chain of custody is the record keeping that assures that a sample that is analyzed in the laboratory is the same one that was collected in the field. Chain of custody may involve considerable paperwork when legal proceedings are involved all scientists, however, need to label materials clearly and maintain accurate notebooks to avoid sample misidentification. 

The American Chemical Society has prepared a record keeping fact sheet that gives guidelines for keeping a notebook record (see Document 1). 

The Central Research and Development Department of the Du Pont Company offers guidelines emphasizing the use of archival quality materials for the preservation of records (see Document 3). Evidently, their notebooks are collected regularly for microfilming. Detailed comparisons between Documents 2 and 3 are left to the reader for the development of his own record keeping methodology. 

There is no precedent in patent case taw where computer-stored data have been used to establish priority of a claim. Therefore, computer record-keeping cannot be assumed to serve as a substitute for maintaining an original, permanently bound, handwritten research notebook. (In other publications, the Committee has prepared materials on how to keep an original handwritten research notebook to meet the above requirements.)... 

Remarks. Tell where you put your calibration peak, where the sample came from, and anything unusual that someone in another lab might have trouble with when trying to duplicate your work. Don t put this off until the last day of the semester when you can no longer remember the details. Keep a record of the spectrum in your notebook. 

From the outset the student should accustom himself to keep a notebook in which all records of experiments and all observations are entered. Never rely on the memory in scientific work. 

While you should keep your notebooks out of harm s way during an experiment, the lab notebook rightfully belongs at the bench, and not the desk. Record data directly into the book, rather than commiting data to memory or temporarily using a sheet of paper (or worse, a paper towel) in place of the notebook itself. 

Before taking chemistry in high school he had, while in junior high school, set up a laboratory for himself in the basement of his parents home. Here he experimented, keeping a notebook in which he meticulously recorded his observations and deductions. One day, he prepared sulfur dioxide, and the gas drove his mother s bridge-party out of the house. After a stern lecture by his parents concerning his chemical experimentation, he built a sort of fume-hood, to lead the noxious gases out of the basement into the open. 

In both academia and industry, the laboratory notebook is a legal document that records the work done by an individual researcher. Even in the USPTO s own view, its Disclosure Document Program does not diminish the value of the conventional, witnessed, permanently bound, and page-numbered laboratory notebook or notarized records [6]. Without a doubt, any experimental work might be worthless unless it is properly recorded for later use. Evidence of the dates of conception and reduction to practice of an invention may be established by a well-maintained laboratory notebook. Therefore, researchers should become familiar with how to keep persuasive laboratory notebooks. Of course, no notebook is ever perfect. However, the closer one comes to this objective, the better it will be. 

Competing Applications. For the EPO patent rights belong to the first to file. In the US it is the first to invent, decided by assessment in interference proceedings. Hence the importance of keeping accurate dated records of work leading to the invention, e.g. laboratory notebooks. 

Keep a notebook to record acronyms, trivial names, structures, etc. that you might need later... 

It is imperative for the technical chemist to keep an accurate record of all his experiments, and the student should become accustomed to recording all of the work he performs in his laboratory notebook. He should not write up the directions he followed, but should describe the procedure he actually used in sufficient detail so that he later can repeat the experiment exactly on the basis of his notes, without introducing any new conditions. It is necessary, therefore, to make an accurate record of quantities used, the temperature maintained, and the reaction time, as well as the nature and size of the apparatus. The notes should also include observations made during the course of the reaction, such as the appearance or disappearance of a color or of a precipitate, hbera-ation of gas, spontaneous increase in temperature, etc. It should also be noted how the rate of the reaction was controlled, how its completion was determined, how the purity of the product was established, etc. 

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