Laboratory Notebook Requirements

Note: All students are expected to read and understand the following guidelines.

  1. Results must be recorded in ink and in duplicate. A duplicating notebook is required from the first lab day. All entries must be made using a ball point ink pen, so that the original is permanent and the copy is clearly legible.
  2. Each notebook page must be signed and dated. Enter a date at the top right of every page. The top of the page should also bear your printed name and the bottom of each completed page must include your signature, which also serves as an honor code pledge.
  3. The notebook page must be blank when you enter lab. You are encouraged to prepare for the lab by writing out procedural notes beforehand, but these do not belong in your lab notebook. This space must contain only the notes you generate while you are doing lab work.
  4. Entries in the notebook must be immediately understandable. The lab notebook is not graded on neatness per se, but any entry must be legible and unambiguous. For example, instead of just “88.1” or “2:18”, “tare weight = 88.1 g” and “start time = 2:18” are far more descriptive.
  5. The notebook must be streamlined. Part of the subtlety in keeping a notebook is developing a sense of what information should be recorded. Just as the absence of key information makes a notebook worthless, obscuring that information with unnecessary verbiage is almost as harmful.
  6. The notebook must be sufficient to reproduce your experiment. Another chemist should be able to take your notebook pages and completely reproduce your experiment with no other resources. This DOES NOT mean that you have to write a novel (to the contrary!)-just be thorough.
  7. All data must be recorded directly into the notebook. Never ever jot numbers or other data onto scraps of paper to be recorded later into your notebook. Likewise, never delay in writing information into your notebook for the sake of formatting.
  8. Notebook entries must not be obliterated. Erroneous entries occasionally occur; never try to erase, blot out, or otherwise remove these entries from your book. Instead, draw a single line through the entry, initial it, and enter the correct information adjacent to the original data.
  9. Notebook page numbers must follow sequentially. Never leave blank pages between experiments or rip out pages from your notebook. Likewise, do not use this notebook for other classes or for any other purposes.
  10. Notebook copies must be submitted at the end of each lab period. When work is completed at the end of each day, draw a diagonal line through any blank space left on a page, sign the bottom of the page, and submit copies of all pages generated that day.