DateCollected

DateCollected is a metadata field used in data management to record the date and time when data were collected from a source. It serves to establish data timeliness, support reproducibility, and enable quality assessments. It is distinct from dateCreated, which marks when a data artifact is produced, and dateModified, which records the last change to the data.

Formats for dateCollected commonly follow standardized representations such as ISO 8601, often stored as a timestamp with time zone (for example, 2023-08-15T10:23:00Z). In practice, it may be recorded as a date, a full timestamp, or a timestamp with a specified precision, and many systems prefer storing it in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to avoid ambiguity across time zones.

Best practices include capturing dateCollected at the point of data capture, storing it in a dedicated field, and avoiding mixed or inconsistent formats. Including explicit time zone information and, if relevant, the precision or uncertainty of the timestamp aids data quality and governance. In multi-source datasets, harmonization of dateCollected values is important to enable accurate comparisons and temporal analyses. Delays in transmission or processing can affect the observed value, so provenance and lineage documentation are often used to explain such discrepancies.

Privacy and governance considerations apply when dateCollected relates to individuals or sensitive data. Retention policies and access controls should align with applicable regulations and organizational practices. DateCollected, together with other provenance metadata, supports data quality, traceability, and reproducibility in data ecosystems.