{"id":545274,"date":"2026-04-22T20:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545274\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:47:13","slug":"return-of-the-research-notebook-in-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545274\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of the Research Notebook in Psychology"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was consulting with a colleague (a tenured principal investigator) whose lab had an internal disagreement about a research process in a mixed-methods study involving recruitment of teachers. I suggested she consult her lab notebook and the notebooks of her doctoral students to reconcile the disagreement based on what was agreed to at the time of the proposal. She seemed confused. “A what?” A lab or research notebook. “Um…I have never heard of that for psychology or education<\/a> labs.” There was a heavy tint of “OK, boomer” in her response.<\/p>\n

I have been inspired by the “Grail Diary” of Professor Henry Walton Jones, Sr., in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It’s place for recording thoughts, musing, diagrams, and drawings and is ideal for research and discovery. <\/p>\n

I am also inspired by Adam Savage’s (from Mythbusters) quote, “the difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” I have used digital versions, off-loaded parts to the Center for Open Science site (https:\/\/osf.io\/<\/a>); used digital notebooks such as Microsoft Notes, Evernote, Notion, and Anytype; and even used something akin to a bullet journal. Most universities have online lab notebooks that are widely used and nearly always required for wet labs, bench sciences, and engineering. Field workers in archeology, geography, and other fields routinely use paper or tablet notebooks in their work. With all the options and widespread use in other fields, I still find that most active research groups in education and psychology do not use structured or unstructured research notebooks.<\/p>\n

I would like to bring back the research notebook as a default skill for all scholars and students in psychology and education, no matter the form or type of research being undertaken. The rationale is multifold: 1) with the rise of commercial artificial intelligence<\/a> large language models (LLMs) in research articles, the degree of LLM involvement is difficult to determine. The trail of original thought can be traced through a research notebook to create a provenance of the development of ideas in research. 2) communication of ideas, measures, and processes to other researchers who may wish to replicate a study. 3) to create a sandbox for idea and model generation. 4) to describe the “why” of a research project: the hypotheses, theory being tested or developed, rationale, and importance of the project. 5) to document processes, measures, observations, and results. 6) to serve as documentation in the case of challenges or accusations of fraud, data manipulation, or questionable research practices<\/a>. And there are many more possible uses of a notebook that create an accountable, creative, and thoughtful approach to research.<\/p>\n

There are several types of research notebooks. Selecting the type of notebook that supports your goal is an important task. Most often, notebooks are hybrids of these formats.<\/p>\n

Formal Lab Notebooks<\/p>\n

Necessary for an animal lab, bench science, or other research group that conducts true experiments and many quasi-experimental designs. Most universities have online lab notebooks available. These serve solely as a detailed record of hypotheses, procedures, measures, data management<\/a> processes, variables, relevant observations, and data analysis plans. <\/p>\n

A lab notebook is considered to be a legal document and can be called as evidence in cases of alleged fraud, ethical violations, or accountability issues from funding sources. It should, should not be conflated with an ideas notebook or general journal and kept separate from any other type of research notebook (e.g., https:\/\/biotechnology.rutgers.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/uploads\/RESOURCES%20PAGE-Lab%20Notebook%20Presentation.pdf<\/a> and https:\/\/research.columbia.edu\/sites\/research.columbia.edu\/files\/content\/RCT%20content\/ReaDI%20Program\/tutorial_LabNotebook_V9.pdf<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Bullet Journals<\/p>\n

A popular approach to notebooks. The bullet journal is mostly for planning. It has become a popular approach to journaling that can include colored markers, tabs, stickers, and other artwork. The goal is to help one become more organized. Yet, many forms of the bullet journal are designed to help one slow down, reduce anxiety<\/a>, and transform into a more mindful<\/a> person (e.g., https:\/\/bulletjournal.com\/<\/a> ). There is often an artistic and creative component to many bullet journals. <\/p>\n

Passion planners are similar to bullet journals with a plan-act-react approach to note-keeping and planning (e.g., https:\/\/passionplanner.com\/<\/a>). An academic bullet journal provides a profession-specific sense of organization for research, teaching, service, calendars, checklists, and other detailed academic activities (e.g., https:\/\/lmackermancom.wordpress.com\/bujo\/<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

Notes and Minutes<\/p>\n

Less of a journal than the method nearly all students and professors to take notes or record minutes during meetings or classes. Organizing notes into a coherent framework so that information can be put into an action plan (and not forgotten). I have long used the Cornell Note Taking system for this purpose (https:\/\/www.goodnotes.com\/blog\/cornell-notes<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

Therapeutic and Gratitude Journals<\/p>\n

More of a tool for therapy<\/a>. This form of journal includes writing about emotions and articulating feelings so they may be addressed in a therapeutic context. Gratitude journals are simple expressions of thankfulness<\/a> for day-to-day experiences. These are not research journals. But anyone who has conducted research certainly experiences emotions that need to be processed and requires a reminder to express gratitude.<\/p>\n

Ideas and Sketchbooks<\/p>\n

A pure expression of creativity<\/a>. Diagramming ideas is important for developing research models. Drawings, making connections, mathematics formulae, flow charts, pictures, and sample data visualizations can go into an idea sketchbook.<\/p>\n

The Everything Notebook<\/p>\n

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega (https:\/\/www.raulpacheco.org\/resources\/the-everything-notebook\/<\/a> ) uses his notebook for research, planning, field observations, notes, ideas, scheduling, to do lists, and, well, everything. He describes his process in several blog posts in detail. His Everything Notebook is close to Dr. Jones’s Grail Diary.<\/p>\n

My Notebook<\/p>\n

Research notebook formats vary and evolve based on needs and projects. I use a large format (8.5″x11″) with 5mm grid and write in longhand. Longhand tends to slow my thinking and increases focus. I have a specific, focused, organized, and detailed page and a messy facing page for meeting notes, diagrams, doodles, and random insights. I use the notebook entry as a warm-up to writing, preparation for the day, and organization in chaotic times. Adding the notebook to your research approach adds both creativity and accountability, two critical components of useful and credible research and scholarship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was consulting with a colleague (a tenured principal investigator) whose lab had an internal disagreement about a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-545274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}