re = /(?<=\d{4}(-\d{2}){2}),\s*/
str = 'L.J. Santodonato, Y. Zhang, M. Feygenson, C.M. Parish, M.C. Gao, R.J. Weber, J.C. Neuefeind, Z. Tang, P.K. Liaw~Deviation from high-entropy configurations in the atomic distributions of a multi-principal-element alloy.~NATURE COMMUNICATIONS~6~2015~~~~0~~0~~2015-11-21, S. Liu, M.C. Gao, P.K. Liaw, Y. Zhang~Microstructures and mechanical properties of AlxCrFeNiTi 0.25 alloys.~JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS~619~2015~610~~~0~~0~~2015-11-22'
subst = '\\n'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html