Introduction of 'Maintenance of Laboratory Notebooks and Records' Policy
The Institute’s Scientific Directorate is currently writing and revising staff policies; mostly in response to comments and suggestions from Branch staff, but also to comply with the requirements of funding and regulatory agencies. The Scientific Directorate is committed to producing workable, sensible policies that protect the staff and the Institute, but do not introduce unrealistic or unnecessary responsibilities.
LICR already has in place an Academic Review Policy, a Conflict of Interest Policy, and an Intellectual Property Policy. The new policy - effective February 1st 2005 - will be the Maintenance of Laboratory Notebooks and Records Policy, which is downloadable as a pdf file here.
There are several important reasons for not only complying with the LICR’s ‘Notebook Policy’, but also ensuring the highest standards when keeping notebooks:
1) Ability to recover data and reconstruct experimental results and methods
It’s very difficult to think back to all the experiments you have performed within the last 12 months and remember exactly how you did them. But the very nature of science makes it frequently necessary to go back to experiments and results performed weeks, months or even years before, to confirm present findings, follow up old ideas because of new leads, or simply explain that crucial figure for a paper or thesis. Experimental results constitute the assets of you as a scientist, the laboratory in which you work, and the Institute that employs you. It is an incredible waste of time and effort (not to mention money) if those assets are lost because of bad or inadequate record-keeping.
2) Protection against questions of data integrity and/or scientific misconduct
The perils of sloppy notebook keeping are clearly illustrated by one of the most famous cases of alleged scientific misconduct in recent memory. When the central conclusions of a 1986 Cell paper were disputed by another researcher, a chain of investigations (by two internal University groups, the US National Institutes of Health, the US Congress, and even the US Secret Service!) focused on the notebooks of the senior author, Dr. Thereza Imanishi-Kari. By her own admission, Dr. Imanishi-Kari kept disorganized and out-of-date notebooks, and it wasn’t until 1996 - after years of paper and ink analyses, and comparisons of notebook dates and eyewitness accounts - that Dr. Imanishi-Kari was finally exonerated from allegations of fraudulently making up data for the paper. The effects on Dr. Imanishi-Kari’s career were terrible; apart from not being able to work or obtain funding for much of that ten year period, her scientific reputation was irreparably damaged in the eyes of many colleagues. The affair also had a considerable impact on the career of co-author and Nobel Prize-winner Dr. David Baltimore, who championed Dr. Imanishi-Kari throughout the investigations.
While the above-mentioned affair is an extreme case, all LICR staff need to be aware that the first area for investigation - if there are questions about the veracity of laboratory findings or the integrity of scientific conduct - will be the notebooks of the researchers involved. Keeping good laboratory records is the most crucial thing a scientist can do to protect himself/herself professionally. See also: ‘Misconduct Case Stresses Importance Of Good Notekeeping’ which has tips and anecdotes on notebook-keeping from leading academic and industry researchers in the wake of several high-profile investigations.
3) Protection of the intellectual property (IP) of your work
A casual perusal of any Patent Office appeals records will soon a) send you to sleep, and b) show you how important laboratory notebooks are when it comes to disputes about patents. Just recently, ‘Scientist X’, after hearing a presentation of unpublished findings by an LICR scientist, repeated the work and tried to include the findings in a patent application. The LICR Office of IP detected this misappropriation of information and was able to prevent Scientist X filing the patent. The IP team was only able to prove that our own scientist made the original discovery because he had kept a good, dated record of his findings. If the patent had been filed, it would have impacted the Institute’s ability to protect the LICR scientist’s research.
Note that ‘best practice’ for keeping notebooks, according to the US Patent Office, is for the investigator to sign at the end of each day’s entries. We do encourage you to get into the habit of signing or initialing at the end of the day, but - realizing that some people may find this too onerous - we have not mandated this in the policy. If you think your work may ultimately warrant IP protection, we strongly recommend that you do sign each entry.
The basics of keeping good records are logical and straight-forward: follow the policy; write notes down immediately in your book - don’t transfer them from loose-leaf into the book; record your work in sufficient detail to allow someone else to repeat the experiment; and date every page. You’ll find it a lot easier to organize and recall your experiments, and you’re protecting yourself, your colleagues and your Institute.
If you have questions about the new Notebook Policy, please don’t hesitate to contact the Office of Communications.