Dissecting Lab notebook (a.k.a. #labbook). General rules, understanding why and how
Channel: Bad Idea
Date: 17/03/2022

In this video I show the importance of the #labbook (#labnotebook). Make sure to watch it and rewatch if needed. Understanding the general concepts of writing and documenting your work will greatly help you in future: it will help in writing articles, since the same principles can be applied to the whole research project; it will help you track changes of your real research lab work; it will ease the pain of repeating your work; it will show how serious you are about your work.

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I myself am coming from Medicine, we do write some documents, unfortunately, the medical history of a patient is a very different document, so when the reality of a research lab hit me, I felt like I got hit by a truck. Overwhelming detailing (as I got used to it in Clinics), working on show it beautiful, disregarding crucial points as I didn't know about their existence. Well, both of my MSc were awful in keeping the #labbooks :) I don't think anyone will be able to repeat all of my experiments using my #labbook. Not understanding it, I then just stopped using it :(

It is needed to mention, I was understanding the importance of the hypotheses, aims, M&Ms, Results, Discussion and Conclusion separately. I was appreciating every bit of info. But it never got to understanding of the whole concept. And the moment of truth came all of a sudden. During my last project I needed to go back to one of the first experiments, and I really saw the problem of mine. Unfortunately, the time played against me, and I couldn't correct anything. That is why, I am teaching you now how to do it, how to keep your future you safe and calm. 

Please watch it and make sure you don't make silly mistakes of beautifying your #labbook instead of keeping it informative:)

Good luck and with best regards :)