Q. I am editing a professor’s CV. In many cases, he gives two years for an article he has published. He gives the year corresponding to the issue number, as well as the year the issue was actually published. What is the correct way to include this information in a citation?
A. It’s not conventional to mention the year an article was printed, although an exception might be made if a publication was delayed many years or appeared in advance of the issue date, or if the timing of the printing was critical to some development in the discipline. Otherwise, it’s potentially confusing and unhelpful to have two dates. Libraries and online databases use the publication date, not the printing date. If your professor can’t defend his inclusion of the printing date, devise a style that is crystal clear, such as “(printed in 2012).”