Journal:The problem with dates: Applying ISO 8601 to research data management
| Full article title | The problem with dates: Applying ISO 8601 to research data management |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of eScience Librarianship |
| Author(s) | Briney, Kristin A. |
| Author affiliation(s) | University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee |
| Primary contact | Email: briney at uwm dot edu |
| Year published | 2018 |
| Volume and issue | 7(2) |
| Page(s) | e1147 |
| DOI | 10.7191/jeslib.2018.1147 |
| ISSN | 2161-3974 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol7/iss2/7/ |
| Download | https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1147&context=jeslib (PDF) |
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Abstract
Dates appear regularly in research data and metadata but are a problematic data type to normalize due to a variety of potential formats. This suggests an opportunity for data librarians to assist with formatting dates, yet there are frequent examples of data librarians using diverse strategies for this purpose. Instead, data librarians should adopt the international date standard ISO 8601. This standard provides needed consistency in date formatting, allows for inclusion of several types of date-time information, and can sort dates chronologically. As regular advocates for standardization in research data, data librarians must adopt ISO 8601 and push for its use as a data management best practice.
Keywords: standards, data information literacy, date-time formatting, data standards
The problem with dates
Dates are a common element of managing research data. Researchers regularly record dates as data points, write dates in research notebooks, label observations by date, and communicate dates to collaborators. Dates also represent a significant hurdle in data cleaning due to inconsistent and culturally specific formatting. For example, depending on where you are in the world, “9/1/91” can represent either September 1, 1991 or January 9, 1991. The same date may also be written “Sept 1, 1991,” “01-09-1991,” “1.Sep.1991,” etc. Normalizing dates is an annoyance, yet not an uncommon issue when working with research data.
Data librarians use a variety of strategies for managing and normalizing dates. This represents a huge gap in our data management toolkit, given the prevalence of date data and our expertise with standardization. Date-time formatting should be considered within the suite of regular research data management advice that data librarians dispense. This commentary asserts that data librarians should adopt the international date standard ISO 8601[1] to format dates and liberally advise researchers to do the same.
As librarians, we are familiar with standards and it should come as no surprise that a standard exists for formatting dates. ISO 8601 was first developed in 1988, bringing together several existing ISO standards for date and time. It is currently in its third edition, dating from 2004, with updates expected in the near future. Other ISO 8601-based date and time standards exist, such as the W3 Note on Date and Time Formats[2] and RF3339[3], with more non-ISO 8601 standards within specific cultures and software tools.
References
- ↑ "ISO 8601:2004". International Organization for Standardization. December 2004. https://www.iso.org/standard/40874.html.
- ↑ Wolf, M.; Wicksteed, C. (21 August 1998). "Date and Time Formats". World Wide Web Consortium. https://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime.
- ↑ Klyne, G.; Newman, C. (July 2002). "Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps". The Internet Society. https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt.
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. The original article lists references alphabetically, but this version—by design—lists them in order of appearance.
