MLA 9 Style Guide: Date

The Publication Date tells when the source was published or posted.

It might include any of these things.

• year
• month and day
• season, such as fall or spring
• time stamp
• a range of dates or years

Finding the publication depends on the format of your source. 

• Web articles = look near the title or author
  • Web pages sometimes do not have dates or only a copyright date
• Library databases (search tools) = look in the description at the top of the source
  • It doesn't matter if you are using a journal, newspaper, ebook, or video because the library tools will always place the date near the top of the entry
• Journals
  • Print journals = look on the title page
  • ejournals = look near the title or download the PDF
• Books
  • Print books = look on the back of the title page
  • eBooks = look at the main entry

Dates

MLA uses day-month-year format. Provide the most specific date you can find.

Month Abbreviations

1. Abbreviate month names using three (3) letters followed by a period.
   1. Exceptions are May, June, and July which are not abbreviated and do not need a period.

• January = Jan.
• February = Feb.
• March = Mar.
• April = Apr.
• May = May
• June = June
• July = July
• August = Aug.
• September = Sep.
• October = Oct.
• November = Nov.
• December = Dec.

No Date

When no date is provided on the source, this element should be skipped.

Seasons

Spell out the name of a season without capitalizing it.

• spring
• summer
• fall
• winter

These examples show where the date element fits inside the bigger works cited entry: