What a research notebook is for

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratory scientists learn early that an experiment not written down did not happen. The bound notebook, with numbered pages and dated entries in ink, is one of the oldest instruments of experimental science, and it survives because it does something no other record does: it captures what the experimenter knew and intended at the moment of acting.

Computational work has inherited the experiments but not, in most places, the notebook. A modern analysis leaves behind a repository full of code, a directory full of outputs, and perhaps a commit history. It is easy to believe that this is a complete record. It is a record of what was done. It is almost never a record of why.

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What a research notebook is for