Why it matters
A good notebook lets someone else — or you, in two years — reproduce an experiment exactly. It's also the evidence in an authorship dispute, a misconduct inquiry, a patent filing, or a funder audit. “I remember roughly what I did” is not a record.
Practical rules
Write it as you go, not at the end of the week. Record what actually happened, including failures and deviations. Paste in printouts and label them. Cross-reference data files by name and location. For an electronic notebook, use one the university sanctions so entries are timestamped and can't be silently edited.
In and around Porter Falls
Research at Porter is applied and partner-driven: a Valley Health quality project, a DNR study on the Porter River, a manufacturing-process fix for a county employer. The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs handles the review and paperwork so the work can start on time.
The practical details
Bound or electronic: A permanently bound notebook in ink, or an approved electronic lab notebook — not loose paper. Each entry: Dated, legible, in enough detail to repeat the work, with mistakes struck through (not erased) and initialed. Ownership: The notebook is university property and stays with the lab when you leave. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (Millwright Hall, Room 340). Call (715) 555–0230 or email research@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.