<pub-date> Publication Date

In ISO STS, this element holds the date on which a standard is (or was) first published. For this NISO STS Tag Set, this publishing date should be recorded using the <release-date> element.

Usage/Remarks

Pub Date Deprecated

For new documents, tagging the published date as <release-date> is considered Best Practice. The element <pub-date> should not be used as part of a standards document’s metadata.
The <pub-date> element has been retained in the ISO-related metadata elements (<iso-meta>, <reg-meta>, <nat-meta>) for purposes of backwards compatibility. This element has been placed into the models for <std-meta> and <std-doc-meta> for purposes of ISO and ISO-related organization’s future migration.
Here is a tagged example from ISO STS of the previous use of the element <pub-date>:
<iso-meta>
  ...  
  <pub-date>2009-05-30</pub-date>
  <release-date>2009-05-30</release-date>
   ...
</iso-meta>
Here is a NISO STS tagged example showing the <release-date> element replacing <pub-date> for initial publication and description of the current standards document:
<iso-meta>
  ...  
  <release-date 
    date-type="published"
    std-type="new-standard"
    iso-8601-date="2009-05-30">2009-05-30</release-date>
  <release-date 
    date-type="published"
    std-type="IS" 
    iso-8601-date="2009-05-30">2009-05-30</release-date>
   ...
</iso-meta>
If Publication Date is Not Available
The <pub-date> is an optional element, so if the publication date is not available, the element can just be omitted. The preferred replacement element <release-date> is also optional, so if the publication date is not available, both of these elements can just be omitted. However, if the <pub-date> is unknown (for whatever reason) the word “unknown” is allowed to be used as the element content:
<pub-date>unknown</pub-date>
Attributes

Base Attributes

Models and Context
May be contained in
Description
Text, numbers, or special characters
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  pub-date     %pub-date-model;                             >
Expanded Content Model

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