This question is for Principal Investigators. How long should we retain old physical laboratory notebooks from our former students, postdocs, and technicians? This is assuming that all data have been published and that there are no intellectual property concerns. I have notebooks now approaching 20 years old and would appreciate any feedback from other PIs as to how they deal with this issue. Thanks, Adam
I plan to keep mine until retirement. The 25+ year old ones are in my basement in a waterproof container.
Your organisation should have a data retention / scartation policy. Someone from Research, Ethics, or IP/Tech transfer departments might know more.
If there is none, try to initiate it.
Alternatively, ask your friends and collegue PI from some renowned institution directly (ResearchGate is more akin making cold calls, than asking targetted audience). Large research universities definititely have one.
In case you cant get by one by any means, you can take inspiration from the GLP rules calling for 25 year retention after the drug has been introduced to market, in your case 25 year after publication. Make it a written commitment and notify your department head/dean/administrator. Be consistent in handling the documents - if the policy says scartation after 25 years, shred the thing after 25 years.
You can also use you library service to digitise/scan the notebooks and save the scans "forever".
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