How to Write a Lab Report
Irina Novikova
One may think that the work of a scientist is done after the experiment is completed, and its results are
analyzed. This is not true! Any research finding have to be communicated to the scientific community and
make its contribution to the common knowledge “database”. Therefor, learning how to communicate the
results of your experiments to others is a very important skill.
In science the most common way to inform the world about your work is to write a paper in a scien-
tific journal. A good paper introduce the readers the original research goal and its significance, describes
the experimental methods used, presents the results and analyze how they fit into the known physical pic-
ture, and draw conclusions. All important information must be included in the paper: ideally, any person
knowledgeable in the field should be able reproduce the experiment and obtain similar results.
A lab report serves similar purpose, but for more limited audience (you course instructors and possible
your classmates). It is important that you learn how to communicate your findings. In you report you have
to clearly and concisely communicate the purpose, the methods and the results of your experiments.
The format for a lab report you need to follow is similar to a scientific paper in a journal. Your lab report
must include the following parts.
•Title of the experiment.
•Authors list. The person writing the report must be listed first; the name of all people participating
in the experiments are listed afterwards. This is a traditional practice in a research publications.
•Abstract. Abstract is a very short summary of your report. The challenge is to describe what
experiment you were doing and what are the important conclusions in less than 100 words.
•Theory and significant equations. Give a brief summary of theoretical background and the list
of equations you will need for the data analysis. In a regular scientific publications this is usually a
significant part of the paper, and usually includes a review of the relevant publications. However, for
a lab report it is ok to keep it very brief.
•Error analysis. In this section please list the equations and methods for figuring out the uncertainties
for different measured and calculated experimental values. Also list any found and suspected systematic
errors.
•Experimental setup and procedures. Sketch the experimental apparatus. Don’t forget to label
all the used equipment! Briefly describe the important steps taken to produce the data, and explain
what variables are being measured. In this section you may also give values of experimental parameters
which do not change in the course of the experiment (such as room temperature or laser wavelength).
•Data and the data analysis. Provide the results of your measurements and data analysis in a form
of a table(tables) and graphs. Carry out explicit “sample” calculation (including calculations of an
uncertainty) to show how the results are obtained from the measured data points. Also, if anything
strange or unexpected happened during the experiment you should mentioned it.
•Conclusions. Give a brief summary of main experimental results and draw conclusions. If your results
disagree with theoretical predictions or accepted value, explain possible sources of disagreement.
•References. This section is optional. But if you have used any external sources during lab preparation
or the data analysis, you should add a reference to them.
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