Publication Date: Difference between revisions

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(added category, removed Senior Editor approval)
(Fix cover notes -> issue notes.)
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* The date that appears on the book, generally in the indicia of a periodical or on the copyright page of a book. Spell out months or seasons in full, use standardized punctuation rather than the exact punctuation appearing in the book, and use the full 4 digit year.
* The date that appears on the book, generally in the indicia of a periodical or on the copyright page of a book. Spell out months or seasons in full, use standardized punctuation rather than the exact punctuation appearing in the book, and use the full 4 digit year.
* If the indicia does not contain a publication date, the information can sometimes be obtained from the cover, distributor catalogs, publisher shipping lists or ads in other comics.
* If the indicia does not contain a publication date, the information can sometimes be obtained from the cover, distributor catalogs, publisher shipping lists or ads in other comics.
* If a published date is obtained from outside the comic itself, it should be reported in square brackets, (indicating indexer-added information that is not in the comic), and a note on the source of the data should be added to the cover Notes field.
* If a published date is obtained from outside the comic itself, it should be reported in square brackets, (indicating indexer-added information that is not in the comic), and a note on the source of the data should be added to the issue Notes field.
* If the publication date is unknown, the copyright date should be reported instead, with a note in the cover Notes field.
* If the publication date is unknown, the copyright date should be reported instead, with a note in the issue Notes field.
* For some books "Winter 1945" is the first issue of the year while for others it's the last issue (so it could be followed by either "Spring 1945" or "Spring 1946") so it should be indexed with both years to avoid ambiguity. Check carefully to determine whether "Winter 1945-1946" or "Winter 1944-1945" is appropriate. The same applies to books dated as "Holiday 1945".
* For some books "Winter 1945" is the first issue of the year while for others it's the last issue (so it could be followed by either "Spring 1945" or "Spring 1946") so it should be indexed with both years to avoid ambiguity. Check carefully to determine whether "Winter 1945-1946" or "Winter 1944-1945" is appropriate. The same applies to books dated as "Holiday 1945".
*If the publishing date in the indicia is obviously wrong (e.g. if a monthly publication has the same publishing date as the previous issue), the date in the indicia should still be indexed, with the correct date in square brackets and an explanatory note in the cover Notes field.
*If the publishing date in the indicia is obviously wrong (e.g. if a monthly publication has the same publishing date as the previous issue), the date in the indicia should still be indexed, with the correct date in square brackets and an explanatory note in the issue Notes field.
*Many publishers of serialized periodicals use publication dates that differ from copyright and/or shipping dates. In these cases, the "official" publication date from the indicia should be the date entered in the Published Date field.
*Many publishers of serialized periodicals use publication dates that differ from copyright and/or shipping dates. In these cases, the "official" publication date from the indicia should be the date entered in the Published Date field.
* Do not use a comma between the month (or season) and the year.  Do use a comma when the day is specified between the month and the year (but not when the day is specified before the month)
* Do not use a comma between the month (or season) and the year.  Do use a comma when the day is specified between the month and the year (but not when the day is specified before the month)

Revision as of 06:54, 19 October 2010

  • Required
  • The date that appears on the book, generally in the indicia of a periodical or on the copyright page of a book. Spell out months or seasons in full, use standardized punctuation rather than the exact punctuation appearing in the book, and use the full 4 digit year.
  • If the indicia does not contain a publication date, the information can sometimes be obtained from the cover, distributor catalogs, publisher shipping lists or ads in other comics.
  • If a published date is obtained from outside the comic itself, it should be reported in square brackets, (indicating indexer-added information that is not in the comic), and a note on the source of the data should be added to the issue Notes field.
  • If the publication date is unknown, the copyright date should be reported instead, with a note in the issue Notes field.
  • For some books "Winter 1945" is the first issue of the year while for others it's the last issue (so it could be followed by either "Spring 1945" or "Spring 1946") so it should be indexed with both years to avoid ambiguity. Check carefully to determine whether "Winter 1945-1946" or "Winter 1944-1945" is appropriate. The same applies to books dated as "Holiday 1945".
  • If the publishing date in the indicia is obviously wrong (e.g. if a monthly publication has the same publishing date as the previous issue), the date in the indicia should still be indexed, with the correct date in square brackets and an explanatory note in the issue Notes field.
  • Many publishers of serialized periodicals use publication dates that differ from copyright and/or shipping dates. In these cases, the "official" publication date from the indicia should be the date entered in the Published Date field.
  • Do not use a comma between the month (or season) and the year. Do use a comma when the day is specified between the month and the year (but not when the day is specified before the month)
  • Examples:
* 1945
* January 1945
* January 7, 1945
* 7 January 1945
* Late January 1945
* January-February 1945
* December 1945-January 1946
* Spring 1945
* Winter 1945-1946
* Holiday 1945-1946
* [January 1945]
* [1945]
* [January] 1945
* [circa 1910]
* [circa 1950s]
* March 9007 [March 2007]

(End of definition)


Comments: Jan Roar Hansen mentions that dates never appear in the indicia in Comics from Norway, only on the cover. Perhaps future revision could change the first line to say "indicia or cover". This is also (generally) true for British comics. Also some comments about whether the date should be in a standard form or in the form (and language) of the country of origin. General consensus that it should be in the form and language of the country of origin. Also a more formal definition of (from Jim Vandore): "Currently most people use a dash in the middle of multi-date dates (January-February 1948), but a few people use slashes (January/February 1948). Use of the slash is not expressly forbidden in the definition, though all the examples use dashes. Do we want consistency? If so, it better be in there, or someone will say, "It doesn't explicitly say I can't use a slash..." The document should also address ths stituation of December 1945-January 1946 or December-January 1945-1946. The document should explicitly state that date formats should be in the standard format for the country (i.e. August 15, 1987 for US publications, but 15 August 1987 for UK publication). Henry Andrews notes that we should have an example for "Mid" month issues. Which of the following is correct: "Mid-September 1999", "Mid September 1999" or "Middle September 1999"?


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