diff --git a/pygeometa/schemas/gbif_eml/__init__.py b/pygeometa/schemas/gbif_eml/__init__.py
index 4fe2467f..60d0366c 100644
--- a/pygeometa/schemas/gbif_eml/__init__.py
+++ b/pygeometa/schemas/gbif_eml/__init__.py
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ def import_(self, metadata):
         idf['dates'] = {
             'publication': text_or_null(dataset.find('pubDate'), strip=True)
         }
+        mcf['metadata']['dates'] = {'creation': idf['dates']['publication']}
         idf['extents'] = {}
 
         if coords := dataset.find('boundingCoordinates'):