ABSTRACT
This chapter covers good documentation practices with concentration on recording and preserving original data. It discusses manual documentation strategies as the use of instrumentation and computer systems, and situations that include both manual and computerized data recording. Recording data is the process of writing down or capturing data that have been observed or measured. Recording is the act of making a persistent record of the data, for example, copying down numbers from a visual readout or display, or using an instrument that creates an electronic record of the data. The concept of contemporaneity can be extended to the identification and resolution of data discrepancies. Data accuracy is the property exhibited by a data value when it reflects the true state of the world at the stated or implied time point.
