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<date> Date
Container element for the parts of a single calendar date.
Usage/Remarks
A <date> element may contain date components such as <day>, <month>, and <year> (which are typically given numeric values), as well as non-numeric elements such
as <season> (which is a text string).
When used within citations (<element-citation> and <mixed-citation>), this element names the publication date of the cited source.
Best Practice
It is best practice to tag individual date elements (such as <year>) whenever possible. Use <string-date> for the narrative form of a date when necessary, for example, when a date has no
month or year specified. However, even inside a <string-date> the named date components, such as <year>, should still be specified.
Attributes
Models and Context
May be contained in
Description
Content Model
<!ELEMENT date %date-model; >
Expanded Content Model
(((day?, month?) | season)?, year, era?)
Tagged Sample
Publication date in citations
Mixed citation
...
<ref id="B14">
<mixed-citation publication-type="book" publication-format="print">
<person-group person-group-type="author">
<name><surname>Hart</surname> <given-names>JT</given-names>
</name></person-group>. <source>A new kind of doctor: the
general practitioner’s part in the health of the
community</source>. <publisher-loc>London</publisher-loc>:
<publisher-name>Merlin Press</publisher-name>,
<date iso-8601-date="1988" date-type="pub"><year>1988</year></date>.
</mixed-citation>
</ref>
...
Element citation
...
<ref id="B14">
<element-citation publication-type="book" publication-format="print">
<person-group person-group-type="author">
<name><surname>Hart</surname>
<given-names>JT</given-names></name>
</person-group>
<source>A new kind of doctor: the general practitioner’s
part in the health of the community</source>
<date iso-8601-date="1988" date-type="pub">
<year>1988</year>
</date>
<publisher-loc>London</publisher-loc>
<publisher-name>Merlin Press</publisher-name>
</element-citation>
</ref>
...
Related Resource
For a discussion on the use of <date>, see Dates in Citations.