diff --git a/app/models/event.rb b/app/models/event.rb
index 7d937bb07..3c586ca32 100644
--- a/app/models/event.rb
+++ b/app/models/event.rb
@@ -578,8 +578,8 @@ def citation_year
 
   def date_published(doi)
     ## TODO: we need to make sure all the dois from other RA are indexed 
-    doi = Doi.where(doi: doi).first
-    doi[:published] if doi.present? 
+    item = Doi.where(doi: doi_from_url(doi)).first
+    item[:publication_year] if item.present? 
   end
 
   def set_defaults
diff --git a/spec/models/event_spec.rb b/spec/models/event_spec.rb
index a3476da0e..c82c3e5f3 100644
--- a/spec/models/event_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/event_spec.rb
@@ -29,5 +29,12 @@
       expect(subject.subj["datePublished"]).to eq("2006-06-13T16:14:19Z")
       expect(subject.obj["datePublished"]).to be_nil
     end
+
+    let(:doi) { create(:doi) }
+
+    it "date_published from the database" do
+      published = subject.date_published("https://doi.org/"+doi.doi)
+      expect(published).to eq(2011)
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/requests/events_spec.rb b/spec/requests/events_spec.rb
index a903f0f82..b1ef4d084 100644
--- a/spec/requests/events_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/events_spec.rb
@@ -595,7 +595,6 @@
   #   # let!(:event) { create(:event) }
   #   # let(:uri) { "/events" }
     
-  # TODO: need further setup
     context "check meta unique" do
       let!(:event) { create_list(:event_for_datacite_related, 5) }
       let(:uri) { "/events?aggregations=metrics_aggregations" }