I am writing a paper in which I repeatedly refer to issues of Life magazine by using the date of their appearance. Ex: An article from Life’s February 2, 1953 issue entitled “A Comeback for Big Families” justifies the need for the mother to remain at home. Should I have a comma after the year????
There is no standard convention for dates. To me, it looks as though your date format is: February 2, 1953 Therefore, there is no need for the comma after the date. Imagine your date format was: 2 February 1953 Your sentence would now be written: An article from Life’s 2 February 1953 issue entitled... A comma could be used after the year, if one were required for other reasons. Examples: Your format: On February 2, 1953, his monkey had triplets. The other format: On 2 February 1953, his monkey had triplets. I hope that's clear. Rgds GM