"Research note" or "laboratory note" is basically a media, a kind of recording storage of "intellectual information" such as data and/of ideas about research and laboratory works. The note can be regarded as "research tool" or "laboratory management tool" for the sake of creation of intellectual properties. However, for the current days, research note has been regarded as "legal risk management tool" of intellectual properties. Different meanings lead to not only different usages on different purposes, but also to the ways of encouraging use of research notes. This paper reports the results of a survey of current use in Japanese universities and colleges, and discusses the change and variation of the meanings of research note.
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