Go to US Gov and get the straight dope directly from the Government.
I worked for a company doing research. We kept a record of everything we did in a bound notebook, with dates, in our own handwriting. This was in addition to dealing with copyrights and patents, which the company did for us.
The company lawyers said this day-to-day record of our work would be helpful if a court case ever came up. A cheap bound school-type notebook was fine. I also found that the notebooks were personally helpful because I have a terrible memory of what I did and when. I kept a sort of personal diary in the same books.