ME4053 Lab Notebook Guidelines

Drs. Peter Rogers and Al Ferri

School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Tech

Laboratory Notebooks serve as an important tool in engineering research and development. The
primary purpose of a notebook is:
1. to allow you or others to recreate a result,
2. to recall with accuracy a calculation, procedure, or experiment, and
3. to enforce some systematic process on laboratory measurements.
As such, laboratory notebooks are also a vital tool in documenting the development and
originality of a particular invention or scientific discovery. It is also indispensible as a means of
disproving claims of patent or trade-secret infringement.
The laboratory notebook should be a permanent chronological record of your work. It
must show what you did and when you did it, and convincingly show that your entries were not
altered at a later time. Many of the guidelines of good notebook practice flow from these
objectives. What follows are the requirements that are expected of your ME4053 Lab Notebook;
you may consider these as the minimum requirements for a professional notebook. The
guidelines below are divided into Raw Data, Processed Data, and Homework. Generally
speaking, Raw Data pertains to all information done in lab. Homework is out-of-class work
that precedes the lab and Processed Data includes the out-of-class work done subsequent to the
lab.

GENERAL RULES

1. You should use a bound notebook with pre-numbered pages. Ideally, your notebook
should have a sewn binding, however for this course, you may use a spiral-bound
notebook. Your notebook can not be loose-leaf. If you have sufficient space in your old
ME3057 notebook, you may use that, provided that you clearly indicate the page where
the ME4053 material begins. Do not use notebooks with carbon copy or carbonless
copy duplicate pages.

2. Put your Name, Section, and Area Number (Lab Station number) on the front cover of
your lab notebook. Write the names, e-mail addresses, and other contact information for
yourself and your lab partners on the first page or inside the front cover.

3. All entries must be written in ink. If you need to make changes, neatly cross out the
erroneous text; do not blot out mistakes or use white-out. It is a good idea to initial cross-
outs, and to give a brief explanation of why you deemed the entry to be in error.

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 4. If your notebook does not have pre-numbered pages, you must pre-number in ink all
pages that you intend to use; this should be done as soon as you buy the notebook. There
should be no blank pages. Cross out any blank areas in the notebook. If you use the
backs of pages, you must always use the backs of pages.

5. The notebook must be chronological according to when the entry was made. At times, the
raw data for one lab will precede the processed data for the previous labs. Thats
acceptable, but be sure to date the beginning of each entry. Please indicate the page on
which the work continues, and indicate the page where previous work for that lab may be
found. For example: Acoustics lab continues on page 34 and Continued from page
18, etc.

6. Figures, tables, and other printouts should be permanently affixed in your notebook. You
can use paste or tape. Refrain from using fold-outs that extend beyond the page
borders. Instead, you can use shrunken images, but do not make them so small that they
are difficult to read. It is good practice to initial across one or more borders of your
pasted entries. NEVER tape or paste print-outs or figures over non-blank areas of the
page!

7. The laboratory notebook is a working document. Of necessity, it will include errors,

cross-outs, data jotted down in haste, etc. In addition to content, though, your notebook
will also be graded for neatness (typically 5% of the notebook grade.) Credit will also be
lost for formatting errors, which are detailed in these Guidelines.

8. You are required to get the TA's signature in your notebook prior to leaving the
laboratory classroom. Data reduction calculations and plots of reduced data may
occur after the TAs signature but all measured data and all homework should be
before the signature. All entries made after the TAs signature should be dated.

RAW DATA

1. The notebook entry for each experiment should begin with a title and date.

2. Each laboratory experiment must have an Objective written in your own words.

3. Each lab entry must have a complete Procedure section, which can be pasted in. The
Objectives and Procedure should be on the first page of the experiment.

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 4. Each lab entry must have a sketch of your experimental setup, showing all major
equipment and all connections. This sketch must be hand-drawn and be consistent with
what was actually observed. Your sketch should have a title, and have labels for all major
components. (You do not need to indicate the brand-names or model numbers of any lab
equipment.) Some laboratory exercises require two or three sketches for different parts
of the lab. In addition to the hand-drawn figure, you can paste in setup sketches which
were computer-generated for your presentations and/or written reports.

5. Your notebook must include a record of all your measurements for the given experiment.
This data should be entered into the notebook at the time when you are making the
measurements. If you decide that a data-set is not useable and repeat the measurements,
then cross out the initial, bad data set and explain why it is not useable.

6. Include system parameters; i.e., values of any system parameters which you will need for
later analysis of the data, and/or values of parameters related to your measurements (for
example, location of the microphone for directivity measurements in the acoustics lab,
the temperature, gain settings, etc). Be sure to include system or material properties that
are provided to you.

7. Data is often recorded in tables. This data can be neatly entered in ink directly in your
notebook; alternatively, you can create tables in Excel, and paste them into your
notebook. Each table should have a brief heading or title. Each column of the table
should have a label or symbol and include the units of the quantity recorded in that
column.

8. Some raw data is in the form of computer-generated plots; for example, transfer
function plots generated using random-excitation in the vibrations lab. All data of this
type should be pasted into your notebook. If there is a computer file containing acquired
data, you should include the filename in your notebook.

9. Supporting calculations - any calculations that are needed for organization of your
measurements.

PROCESSED AND/OR REDUCED DATA

1. After all raw data has been acquired and entered into you notebook, it must be processed
and reduced. Your lab notebook should contain a record of all processed results. It should
also include equations and sample calculations for all results.

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 2. For every plot that you generate (outside of lab) paste a copy into your lab notebook.
Each plot should have a title and axis labels including units. All discrete data must have
symbols, which can be connected with lines. If experimental data is compared to a
theoretical result, the equation used to generate the theoretical result must be included in
your notebook. (Theoretical curves are represented with smooth lines, usually without
isolated symbols.) If several curves are on the same plot, use a legend, or hand-write
labels on each curve.

3. At times, data is reduced with the aid of a Matlab code. For completeness, it is a good
idea to paste a copy of the program or script into your notebook.

4. The general rule-of-thumb is that if a theoretical result is included, the equation or

Simulink model from which it comes should be included in your lab notebook.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

Solutions to homework assignments should be completed prior to your lab meeting.

Homework solutions should be entered directly into your lab notebook. You should include a
brief title to explain the objective of the calculations; include any equations that you are using; if
Matlab/Simulink is used, include a print-out of your script and/or Simulink models; include
print-outs of any plots or tables that you generated. All aspects of the homework solution should
be written in ink or taped/pasted into your lab notebook.

For further information, refer to the material on notebook policies in Writing Style and Standards
in Undergraduate Reports, by S. Jeter and J. Donnell [College Publishing, Glen Allen VA, 2004.
ISBN 0-9679121-7-2]. Chapter 2.14, pages 185-188 give a good overview of how to keep a good
lab-notebook. In particular, there is an example notebook page on page 188.