OBO dates in bibliographic items

In some citations portions of the date of the work are captured in different areas of the citation. Even though this may be the case, if a citation has a month and a year capture them together in ISO format.

The year of a publication may be in one place and the month may be in another. This is especially common in journal citations where the month of the publication may be in parenthesis and separate from the year. Capture dates in the date attribute in ISO format i.e. YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD. In cases where references have dates such as May 1972, Capture these as 1972-05.

If a range of dates is given, capture the first date in the date attribute and capture the second in the dateEnd attribute. See the example below.

Zubaida, Sami. “Islam, the State, and Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt.” Middle East Report 179 (November–December 1992): 2–10.


      <bibItem id="obo-9780195390155-0016-bibItem-0014" class="journalArticle" author="Zubaida, Sami" date="1992-11" dateEnd="1992-12" journalName="Middle East Report" title="Islam, the State, and Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt" vol="179" page="2" pageLast="10">
        <nameGrp role="author" mainName="Zubaida" foreNames="Sami">Zubaida, Sami</nameGrp>. “Islam,
        the State, and Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt.” <i>Middle East
          Report</i> 179 (November–December 1992): 2–10.</bibItem>