A Four Part Series on Open Notebook Science (Part 1) › Scientific and Medical Libraries

"As a librarian and archivist, I have worked with a variety of materials that record scientific advancements, such as books, journal articles, letters of correspondence, photos, x-rays, and laboratory notebooks. In a four-part article series, I would like to emphasize the importance of preserving laboratory notebooks. In particular, I will firstly examine the role laboratory notebooks play assisting the reproducibility of scientific results, secondly, discuss the changing value of laboratory notebooks in the newly implemented 'first to file' patenting process in the U. S., thirdly, debate models for creating an ethos of openness for notebook contents, and finally, consider the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a possible central depository for a large number of laboratory notebooks that could accompany U. S. patent filings ..."