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. 2023 Jul 3:12:e88853.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.88853.

Why every lab needs a handbook

Benjamin C Tendler  1 , Maddie Welland  1 , Karla L Miller  1 ; WIN Handbook Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Why every lab needs a handbook

Benjamin C Tendler et al. Elife. .

Abstract

A lab handbook is a flexible document that outlines the ethos of a research lab or group. A good handbook will outline the different roles within the lab, explain what is expected of all lab members, provide an overview of the culture the lab aims to create, and describe how the lab supports its members so that they can develop as researchers. Here we describe how we wrote a lab handbook for a large research group, and provide resources to help other labs write their own handbooks.

Keywords: careers in science; early-career researchers; lab handbooks; onboarding; principal investigators; research culture.

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Conflict of interest statement

BT, MW, KM No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. The process for writing the WIN Physics lab handbook.
A lab handbook brings many benefits to a lab. Writing a lab handbook as a collaborative group exercise helps to achieve buy-in and encourages discussion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Tendler BC, Welland M, Miller KL, WIN Handbook Team Lab Handbook resources. Zenodo. 2022 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7419210. - DOI

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