Date and Time

In research data management, it is important to follow best practices when recording and recording dates and times to ensure accuracy and consistency in your data.

ISO 8601

One of the best practices is to use the ISO 8601 standard, which is an international standard for representing dates and times. The ISO 8601 standard uses a standardised format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS) that makes it easier to compare and interpret dates and times across different systems and locations.

Example

Examples of ISO 8601-compliant date and time representations include:

  • 2019-07-15 or 20190715 (representing July 15th, 2019)

  • 2019-07-15T12:00:00(representing noon on July 15th, 2019)

  • 2019-07-15T12:00:00+01:00 (representing noon on July 15th, 2019 in a time zone with an offset of 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+1))

Note

Using the ISO 8601 standard helps to reduce the risk of errors and makes your data more accessible and reusable by others. It is important to consistently apply the ISO 8601 standard throughout your research data management practices.