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I was searching some academic publishes on a site. And their search result are like below.

I want to know what the numbers means. For example what is the published date ? What does 2010 Oct;(5):522-5. Epub 2010 Jun 2 mean ?

Sildenafil in the management of the failing Fontan circulation.

Reinhardt Z, Uzun O, Bhole V, Ofoe V, Wilson D, Onuzo O, Wright JG, Stumper O.

Cardiol Young. 2010 Oct;20(5):522-5. Epub 2010 Jun 2.

Oral sildenafil for persistent pulmonary hypertension early after congenital cardiac surgery in children.

Nemoto S, Sasaki T, Ozawa H, Katsumata T, Kishi K, Okumura K, Mori Y, Umegaki O.

Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2010 Jul;38(1):71-7. Epub 2010 Mar 4.

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This – Gnawme Jan 24 '12 at 20:56
1  
2010: published in the year 2010; Oct: published in the month October of the given year; (5): issue number 5 in that year; 522-5: page 522 to 525 in that issue; Epub: electronically published (i.e. online) since 2010 Jun 2: 2nd of June of year 2010; dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1047951110000648 – Stephen Jan 24 '12 at 21:47

closed as off topic by Will Hunting, Gnawme, Mahnax, FumbleFingers, Matt Эллен Jan 24 '12 at 20:58

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1 Answer

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Probably the date it was published in the journal and epub the date it was available electronically on the journals website. In the days when it took months for papers to be typeset and printed the journals would also list a "received" date.

The exact date something was publically available is important for priority and especially these days for patent prior art.

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