proper laboratory and data protocols

Proper Laboratory and Data Protocols

E. Allen FoegedingDepartment of Food, Bioprocessing

and Nutrition SciencesNorth Carolina State University

Welcome to Graduate School

While you are here, would you please….• Develop your mind by exploring the past,

present and future in your academic area• Learn how to formulate and test hypotheses• Conduct and document laboratory research

such that it can be understood by other scientists

• Do this in _ years and produce _ publications• Have fun at the beach and mountains in your

spare time!

2North Carolina State University

Your Mentor

• Everything I need to know about being a faculty mentor I learned from…

North Carolina State University

Quotable Einstein

• “The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who however, see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.”

• We want to develop ethically-driven problem solvers!


Quotable Einstein

• “The school should always have as its aim that the young person leave it as a harmonious personality, not as a specialist.”

• “Otherwise, he – with his specialized knowledge – more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.”


Duties of Mentor and Student

Mentor• Motivation• Guidance• Assistance• Keep student on the

proper path• Inspiration!?

Student• Self Motivation• Curiosity• Responsible for:

– Experimental design– Collect data– Interpret data– Communicate findings

North Carolina State Universityhttp://www.ocytoronto.org/media/Mother%20Teresa.jpg

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0001/einstein_clerk.jpg

Functions of a Laboratory Notebook

• Document your methods– You have a thesis and manuscripts to write

• Document your data– You have a these and manuscripts to write and

defend!• Document observations

– If not written down, they may be lost forever• Establish date of discovery

– It may have to be defended in court


http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/rnb/

Date

Easy to read

Read and signed byanother scientist?

He put reprints of his manuscripts in his notebooks.

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Laboratory Notebook1. Record procedures2. Record all data

and observations3. Sign and date

each page4. Always write in ink5. Make a table of

contents6. Have each page

read and co-signed

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Guidance From NCSU

Notebook Maintenance (extracted from: http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/integrity/ncsu_patent.php)

12. 1. 1 Good practice is to use bound notebooks for records, making entries on a daily basis. This "diary" format provides among other things, a day-to-day chronology.

12. 1. 2 Use the notebook to record a conception (a complete description of an idea to accomplish a particular purpose or result), laboratory data and drawings. Each entry should be headed with a title and continued on successive pages.

12. 1. 3 Make entries in ink and do not erase or use correction fluid to cover errors. Draw a line through text or drawings to be deleted, and enter the material in corrected form. Draw a line through blank spaces on the page.


Guidance From NCSU

12. 1. 4 Separate sheets and photographs pasted to notebook pages should be referred to in an entry. Material that cannot be incorporated in the notebook should be keyed to an entry.

12. 1. 5 Sign and date all entries at the time they are made, and have them witnessed. A witness must be someone who has read the material and is capable of understanding it, yet has nothing to do with producing it.


Guidance From NCSU

12. 1. 6 Set aside a time for making notebook entries and faithfully observe it. Arrange to have two or more colleagues serve as witnesses on a consistent, frequent basis.

• Lab notebooks are the property of NC State University and MUST REMAIN IN THE PRIMARY LABORATORY at all times.


Data Generation –Local Storage

Keep a diary/ notebook of what you did and where it is backed up

Transfer to permanent media periodically

For heaven sakes, organize at least as well as your CD collection

Transfer to permanent media frequently. Store software backups

From: http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/compliance/integrity/lab_notebooks_supplement.doc

Electronic storageOf Data

Why? Potential Problems

• Somebody questions the ownership of your data. Can you prove it is yours?

• Your manuscript is reviewed and a reviewer wants to know how you “mixed vigorously” and assured constant mixing.

• You start a job and it is years before you finish your degree.


Why? Potential Problems

• Your computer files are lost.• The next person in the laboratory

cannot repeat your experiment.• Your patent application is contested by

someone claiming prior invention.• Right before your defense you are put

under a spell and have to be kissed by a royal person to awake!!!!


You are not alone

• Talk with your advisor about general protocol in your laboratory

• The laboratory notebook is an excellent way to: – Demonstrate productivity– Get feedback– Document future work


Your Advisor

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Conversations among my students

From News and Observer, Sunday, August 10, 2008

NCSU Suggestions for Faculty

• RECORD--Record the scope, hypothesis, experimental design and conclusions for the day.

• REVIEW--Review your entries for the past several days and ensure they are complete.

• INSTRUCT--Document instructions given to students.


Suggestions Continued

• COUNSEL--Counsel your students on how to maintain lab notebooks and journals.

• THINK--Stop and think about what you and your subordinate scholars are doing, how you are ensuring objectivity.

• DOUBLE CHECK--Check, double check and seriously, triple check your literature searches, references lists and other bibliographical materials.

• HEAL--Shore up adversarial relationships, especially professional ones.


Be Careful!: Famous Graduate Student Last Words*

Mechanical and Aerospace• I wonder what this button does?Plant Biology• These mushrooms look edible!Zoology• I wonder where the mother bear is?Veterinary Medicine• Nice doggy

North Carolina State University*Borrowed from an episode of Car Talk

Your Program

• Work Hard• Enjoy your program• May luck always be on your side• Just in case it is not….Record, Record

and Record!


What do these former Cal Tech Professors have in common?

Questions?


proper laboratory and data protocols

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