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<month> Month

Names one of the months of the year, such as “July” or “07”.

Usage/Remarks

Used within both article metadata and citations (<element-citation> and <mixed-citation>), this element may contain the textual name of a month (“December”), a month-name abbreviation (“Dec”), or a numeric month (“12”). Numeric months are best practice for archives who wish to regularize their data.

Best Practice

For ease in comparisons and searching, many archives prefer that months be converted to numeric value of the following form:
  • 01 = January
  • 02 = February
  • 03 = March
etc.
Related Elements
Within citations (<element-citation> and <mixed-citation>), this element names a month, typically for the publication date of the cited source. The elements <year>, <date>, <day>, <month>, and <season> may all be used to describe a date in a citation, both publication dates and other dates. Other dates inside a citation, such as a copyright date, the date on which the author accessed the resource, or a withdrawal date, should be tagged using <date-in-citation> with the @content-type attribute used to name the type of date (copyright, access-date, time-stamp, etc.).
Attributes
content-type
specific-use

Base Attributes

id
xml:base
xml:lang
Models and Context
May be contained in
<access-date>, <conf-date>, <date>, <date-in-citation>, <element-citation>, <mixed-citation>, <nlm-citation>, <product>, <pub-date>, <related-article>, <related-object>, <std>, <string-date>, <time-stamp>
Description
Text, numbers, or special characters
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  month        (#PCDATA)                                    >
Tagged Samples
<date> in <history> 
...
<article-meta>
 ...
 <contrib-group>
  <contrib contrib-type="author">
   <collab collab-type="committee">Technical Committee ISO/TC 108, 
    Subcommittee SC 2</collab>
  </contrib>
 </contrib-group>
 <fpage seq="1">1</fpage>
 <lpage>23</lpage>
 <history>
  <date date-type="approved" iso-8601-date="2012-06-01">
   <day>01</day>
   <month>06</month>
   <year>2012</year>
  </date>
 </history>
 ...
</article-meta>
...
<pub-date> 
...
<article-meta>
 <article-id pub-id-type="pmid">...</article-id>
 <title-group>...</title-group>
 <contrib-group>...</contrib-group>
 <aff id="StLukes">...</aff>
 <pub-date publication-format="print" date-type="pub" 
   iso-8601-date="1999-03-27">
  <day>27</day>
  <month>03</month>
  <year>1999</year>
 </pub-date>
 <volume>318</volume>
 <issue>7187</issue>
 <fpage>837</fpage>
 <lpage>841</lpage>
 <history>
  <date date-type="accepted" iso-8601-date="2001-01-29">
   <day>29</day>
   <month>01</month>
   <year>1999</year>
  </date>
 </history>
 <permissions>
  <copyright-statement>Copyright &#x00A9; 1999, British
   Medical Journal</copyright-statement>
  <copyright-year>1999</copyright-year>
  <copyright-holder>British Medical Journal</copyright-holder>
 </permissions>
 <abstract>
  <p>To examine the effectiveness of day hospital
   attendance in prolonging independent living for
   elderly people.</p>
 </abstract>
</article-meta>
...
In citations
Mixed citation
...
<ref>
 <mixed-citation publication-type="book" publication-format="web">
  <source>Fact sheet: AIDS information resources</source>
  [Internet]. <publisher-loc>Bethesda
  (MD)</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>National
  Library of Medicine (US)</publisher-name>;
  <year iso-8601-date="2003-05-02">2003</year> <month>May</month>
  <day>2</day> [updated <date-in-citation content-type="updated"
  iso-8601-date="2005-07-14">2005 Jul 14</date-in-citation>;
  cited <date-in-citation content-type="access-date"
  iso-8601-date="2006-11-15">2006 Nov 15</date-in-citation>].
  <size units="screens">[about 3 screens]</size>. Available from:
  <uri>http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/aidsinfs.html</uri>.
 </mixed-citation>
</ref>
...
Element citation
...
<ref>
 <element-citation publication-type="book" publication-format="web">
  <source>Fact sheet: AIDS information resources</source>
  <comment>[Internet]</comment>
  <publisher-loc>Bethesda (MD)</publisher-loc>
  <publisher-name>National Library of Medicine (US)</publisher-name>
  <year iso-8601-date="2002-05-02">2003</year>
  <month>May</month>
  <day>2</day>
  <date-in-citation content-type="updated"
    iso-8601-date="2005-07-14">updated 2005 Jul 14</date-in-citation>
  <date-in-citation content-type="access-date"
    iso-8601-date="2006-11-15">cited 2006 Nov 15</date-in-citation>
  <size units="screens">[about 3 screens]</size>
  <comment>Available from:
   <uri>http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/aidsinfs.html</uri>
  </comment>
 </element-citation>
</ref>
...
Related Resource
For a discussion on the use of <month>, see Dates in Citations.