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Use of Article and ArticleDate Attribute Values in Creating the Source Area of the MEDLINE®/PubMed® Citation Display

The following information is provided to assist in citing and displaying MEDLINE and other PubMed records distributed by NLM.

Data in the XML element <Article> and its attribute PubModel is used in combination with data in the element <ArticleDate> and its attribute DateType to determine the way an article should be cited and displayed. Use of the two attributes supports a newer model of publishing whereby journal articles are published electronically in final form and the articles are later pulled into a print issue, as is the case for the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

The attribute PubModel on the Article element associates the item's publication date with the publication medium or media. There are four possible values for PubModel: Print | Print-Electronic | Electronic | Electronic-Print. NLM derives data in the Article PubModel attribute from the data submitted by the publishers. The attribute DateType on the ArticleDate element is used to indicate the media of the article published on the date in ArticleDate.

Below are examples of NLM's XML export along with the corresponding citation displays in PubMed.

  1. Hardcopy print issue; whether or not there is a published electronic version of the item.
    In the XML for this type of record, the Article PubModel value is "Print" and there is no ArticleDate element:
    <Article PubModel="Print">
    ...
    <PubDate>
    <Year>2003</Year>
    </PubDate>

    The corresponding PubMed citation shows the print publication date:

    Abel U, Wollermann C.
    Methodological aspects of the evaluation of postoperative cancer surveillance. Part I: Validity.
    Clin Lab. 2003;49(7-8):367-77. Review.
    PMID: 12908736 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

  2. Hardcopy print issue with an earlier published electronic version and publisher wants articles cited by the print publication date.
    In the XML for this type of record, the Article PubModel value is "Print-Electronic" and the ArticleDate DateType value is "Electronic".
    <Article PubModel="Print-Electronic">
    ...
    <PubDate>
    <Year>2000</Year>
    <Month>Jan</Month>
    </PubDate>
    ...
    <ArticleDate DateType="Electronic">
    <Year>1999</Year>
    <Month>11</Month>
    <Day>25</Day>
    </ArticleDate>

    The corresponding PubMed citation shows the print publication date as the official date followed by the epub date notation:

    Soon MS, Lin OS.
    Inflammatory fibroid polyp of the duodenum.
    Surg Endosc. 2000 Jan;14(1):86. Epub 1999 Nov 25.
    PMID: 10854512 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

  3. a) Electronic publication only; there is no published hardcopy print version of the item.
    In the XML for this type of record, the Article PubModel value is "Electronic" and the ArticleDate DateType value is "Electronic". Note that the complete PubDate (in this example, Year, Month, Day) corresponds identically to the ArticleDate, although the Month in the PubDate is expressed by the abbreviated month name whereas the Month in ArticleDate is expressed by a number:
    <Article PubModel="Electronic">
    ...
    <PubDate>
    <Year>2004</Year>
    <Month>Jan</Month>
    <Day>28</Day>
    </PubDate>
    ...
    <ArticleDate DateType="Electronic">
    <Year>2004</Year>
    <Month>01</Month>
    <Day>28</Day>
    </ArticleDate>

    NLM uses the PubDate, which is the same as ArticleDate, as the official date (using the spelled out abbreviation of the Month), per the NISO ANSI 39.29 standard. In the corresponding PubMed citation display there is no explicit indication in the date of publication that the citation is to an electronic-only item, although the pagination value is often a clue and the ISSN in the record is for an e-publication.

    Leslie M.
    Hampering a heartbreaker. Antibiotic might stem injury from heart attack.
    Sci Aging Knowledge Environ. 2004 Jan 28;2004(4):nf13.
    PMID: 14749521 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

    b) Electronic publication only; there is no published hardcopy print version of the item and publishers do not provide <ArticleDate>.
    Some publishers of electronic-only journals do not use the ArticleDate element in their electronic submissions to NLM and instead use the Article element only. These citations to electronic-only articles are labeled as "Print" because the publisher submitted them that way. NLM is making every effort to work with publishers to get the correct setting for new citations; however it may not be feasible to correct these.

    <Article PubModel="Print">
    ...
    <PubDate>
    <Year>2003</Year>
    <Month>Oct</Month>
    </PubDate>
    </JournalIssue>
    </Journal>

    In the corresponding PubMed citation display there is no explicit indication in the date of publication that the citation is to an electronic-only item, although the ISSN in the record is for an e-publication.

    Cassetty CT, Leonard AL.
    Epidermal nevus.
    Dermatol Online J. 2003 Oct;9(4):43.
    PMID: 14594616 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

  4. Electronic publication first; followed by hardcopy print publication and publisher wants articles cited by electronic publication date.
    NOTE: this publishing model is used by the journal Nucleic Acids Research. In the XML for this type of record, the Article PubModel value is "Electronic-Print" and the ArticleDate DateType value is "Electronic". Note that the PubDate consists of Year only:
    <Article PubModel="Electronic-Print">
    <PubDate>
    <Year>2004</Year>
    </PubDate>
    ...
    <ArticleDate DateType="Electronic">
    <Year>2004</Year>
    <Month>01</Month>
    <Day>16</Day>
    </ArticleDate>

    The corresponding PubMed citation displays the electronic publication date as the official date followed by the print date notation:

    Edgar RC.
    Local homology recognition and distance measures in linear time using compressed amino acid alphabets.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 2004 Jan 16;32(1):380-5. Print 2004.
    PMID: 14729922 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

    Nucleic Acids Research also uses the model described in #3a above (electronic publication only; no published hardcopy print version). The corresponding PubMed citation display for this type of Nucleic Acids Research article that is electronic only with no hardcopy shows the electronic publication date and lacks a following print date notation:

    Coleman TM, Wang G, Huang F.
    Superior 5' homogeneity of RNA from ATP-initiated transcription under the T7 phi 2.5 promoter.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 2004 Jan 15;32(1):e14.
    PMID: 14744982 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Last updated: 22 August 2007
First published: 06 May 2005
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