The record
Standing document
A catalog kept like an instrument maker's records
Rational Research supplies research compounds and keeps the paperwork that goes with them. This page describes how the record is kept, because that is the part most suppliers leave undocumented.
The record is the product.
Anyone can print a label. What is harder, and what actually matters when you are trying to reproduce work six months later, is knowing whether the material in front of you is the same material the catalog described when you first ordered it.
So every entry in this catalog carries a revision history. When packaging changes, when a vial size is added, when the supplier of record changes, when a specification is restated, the change is filed as a new revision with the date it was made. Earlier revisions stay where they are. Nothing is quietly edited, and nothing disappears.
The letter printed on a vial tells you which revision of the record that vial was filed under. If the entry has moved on since, the history shows exactly what moved and when.
What an entry contains
07 fields
- Reference
- A catalog number assigned once and never reassigned.
- Registry number
- The CAS number, where the compound has one.
- Formula and mass
- As recorded, with the units written out.
- Purity specification
- The specification the entry is held to.
- Format
- What physically arrives, and in what container.
- Storage range
- The range the entry is filed under.
- Revision history
- Every change, dated, in the order it was made.
What is deliberately absent
Three omissions
No claims about effects
An entry records what a compound is, not what it does. Everything here is supplied for laboratory research only, and a supplier is not the right party to tell you what to expect from it.
No lot lookup
Lot numbers are stamped at filling and printed on the vial so your own records can cite them. We do not run a lookup page, because a number typed into a form proves nothing to anyone.
No urgency
No countdowns, no scarcity notices, no badges. The register moves at the speed of the register. If an entry changed, it will be in the history with the date on it.
Terms of supply
Research use only
Everything in this catalog is supplied for research purposes only. Not for human or veterinary use. Not a drug, a supplement, or a food. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Buyers must be 21 or older and are responsible for handling material in line with their own institution's procedures.