A lab notebook is a primary record of research. Researchers use a lab notebook to document their hypotheses, experiments and initial analysis or interpretation of these experiments. The notebook serves as an organizational tool, a memory aid, and can also have a role in protecting any intellectual property that comes from the research. Research is an active, diligent and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret or revise facts, events, behaviours, or theories, or to make practical applications with the help of such facts, laws or theories. ... A hypothesis (assumption in ancient Greek) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ... From Latin ex- + -periri (akin to periculum attempt). ... In law, particularly in common law jurisdictions, intellectual property or IP refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter. ...

The guidelines for lab notebooks vary widely between institution and between individual labs, but some quidelines are fairly common. The lab notebook is usually writen in as the experiments progress, rather than a later date. Many say that lab notebook should be thought of as a diary of activities that are described in sufficient detail to allow another scientist to follow the same steps.

To protect intellectual property, notebooks with permenently bound pages are often recommended. Researchers are often enouraged to write only with unerasable pen, to sign and date each page, and to have their notebooks inspected periodically by another scientist who can read and understand it. All of these guidelines can be useful in proving exactly when a discovery was made, in the case of a patent dispute.

Several companies now ofter electronic lab notebooks. This format has gained some popularity, especially in large pharmaceutical companies, which have large numbers of researchers and great need to document their experiments. An electronic lab notebook is a software program designed to replace paper laboratory notebooks. ...