Importance of Control and Maintenance of a Laboratory Notebook

Record keeping of laboratory activities is an essential requirement under Good Documentary Practices (GDP). An earlier article covered the保持所有实验室活动记录的重要性. A laboratory notebook is a record of experimental activities. In addition to the results a notebook includes following details:

Calculations
Experimental conditions
Observations
重量记录
支持数据如色谱图，光谱等

The backup data available in the laboratory notebook is of use in case a recheck of obtained values becomes necessary. In such cases you can refer to the earlier conditions under which a particular analysis was carried out.

It is important is to bear in mind that :

数据应诚实并同时录制
Overwriting is not acceptable. Wrong entries should be crossed with a single line and correct entries made after putting initials and date over the corrected entries
任何标准测试程序的变化都应承担授权人员的身份验证
称重记录,吸光度读数等be preserved in notebook or under reference in the data folder
Entries should be made with indelible ink and under no circumstances should pencil entries be permitted
It is illegal to make post dated or back dated entries in the notebook.

Issue and control of laboratory notebooks

Each laboratory note notebook should be issued by laboratory incharge or quality assurance department and should be uniform in shape and size
Pages should be serially numbered so that no page can be removed
Enough space should be provided to show calculations alongside the entered data
没有人应该被允许将实验室笔记本从实验室铺出
On completion each notebook should be returned to section in charge and only thereafter a fresh notebook should be issued. The section in charge should maintain a record of notebooks issued and received back
在留下一份工作时，将占有分析师的笔记本应该返回部分头部

A laboratory notebook is a sacrosanct laboratory document which can be relied upon by your successors for carrying forward your activities. It also serves for re-verification of some results in case of disputes. Even it can be produced as a legal document in case of commercial quality dispute or patent claims. Its proper maintenance and control thus becomes the responsibility of both the laboratory scientist as well as the laboratory manager.

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