Observatiedatum

Observatiedatum is the date on which an observation was made and recorded in a data system. It is used across disciplines such as scientific research, health records, ecology, and market research, and it is distinct from the date the data are entered into a database or from the date the observed event actually occurred.

In practice, the observatiedatum is typically stored as a date or timestamp. Best practice is to use a standard format such as ISO 8601 (for example, 2025-07-16 or 2025-07-16T14:23:00Z). When time information is included, the time zone should be explicit to avoid misinterpretation, especially in multi-site datasets or international studies.

Observatiedatum relates to other temporal fields and may differ from the sampling date, data-entry date, or event date itself. In longitudinal or repeated-measure datasets, an entity can have multiple observations with different observatiedatums. Clear documentation of what the date represents, and how missing values are handled, is essential for accurate analysis and reporting.

Data quality and governance considerations include ensuring the date is reasonable within the study context (not in the future relative to the dataset), consistent use of time zones, and alignment with related fields such as visit dates or event dates. Proper validation and provenance help maintain data integrity when merging datasets or performing temporal analyses.

In practice, observatiedatum is a core temporal attribute in many data models and standards. Harmonizing its meaning, format, and semantics across systems supports reliable data integration and temporal reasoning. See also observation date and timestamp.