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Electronic notebooks and electronic data present problems:
- Some researchers prefer to write their notebooks on a computer. This practice may be convenient, but it raises the question of how to validate the data, since it cannot be signed and witnessed and since subsequent alterations could be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to detect.
- Some modern instruments generate data in quantities that are impractical to paste in a laboratory notebook or even, sometimes, to print out. The data can be stored and manipulated electronically, but problems of validation are similar to those with electronic notebooks.
Electronic notebooks that could overcome these problems are still in development. At present, practices for dealing with these problems vary. It is important that key results, or summaries of key results, be recorded and dated in a notebook to establish a primary record, especially if it is important to establish inventorship records. Copies of computer text or electronic records can be glued in. Some institutions and companies have the capability to archive electronic records, but the legal status of such records is unclear.
For further discussion, see Kanare, H.M., "Writing the Laboratory Notebook,?" American Chemical Society, Washington, 1985, pp. 113-120.
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