Keep Missing Source Dates Missing

Keep publication, update and access dates separate, and leave a missing publisher date unstated. If a source supplies only an update date, report it as an update. The day you read the source cannot supply its missing publication date.

These notes help you explain the evidence behind an article. Use the blogger keyword-research guide to choose the question you are answering, then record what your sources actually say about their dates.

Give Each Date Its Own Job

A publication date identifies when the publisher says a work was published. An update date identifies when the publisher says it was updated. An access date records your consultation of the source; it does not establish when the work first appeared or changed.

The MLA Style Center explanation supports that narrow meaning of an access date. Published on December 29, 2016, the page explicitly concerns the eighth edition and points readers to the ninth edition for current guidance. The plain notes here are teaching examples, not a claim to follow a current citation style or a universal access-date requirement.

The following three cards are entirely fictional. Their titles, dates and missing fields are supplied exercise facts. They have no invented URLs, and no real publisher pages were inspected for these examples. In each case, compare an unsupported replacement with a finished note that preserves the record.

Three Filled Source-Date Cards

Card A: Publication and Update Dates Are Supplied

Source title: Paper Folding Guide.

• Publisher field: Published March 2, 2024.

• Publisher field: Updated July 9, 2025.

• Consultation date: October 8, 2026.

Unsupported replacement

Paper Folding Guide. Published October 8, 2026.

This substitutes the consultation date for the supplied publication date and drops the update date. The record supports neither change.

Finished source note

Paper Folding Guide. Published March 2, 2024; updated July 9, 2025; accessed October 8, 2026.

All three dates remain attached to their own meanings. A later consultation does not make this a newly published guide.

Card B: Only an Update Date Is Supplied

Source title: Label Placement Guide.

• Publisher field: Updated June 12, 2025.

• Original publication date: not supplied.

• Consultation date: October 8, 2026.

Unsupported replacement

Label Placement Guide. Published June 12, 2025.

The publisher supplied an update date, not an original publication date. The update could have occurred after an earlier publication, but this card does not supply that earlier date.

Finished source note

Label Placement Guide. Updated June 12, 2025; accessed October 8, 2026; original publication date not stated.

This note keeps the useful known date while preserving the missing field. There is no need to invent an original date to make the note look complete.

Card C: The Only Publisher Date Text Is a Footer

Source title: Shelf Code Guide.

• Article publication field: not supplied.

• Article update field: not supplied.

• Supplied footer: Copyright 2026.

• Consultation date: October 8, 2026.

Unsupported replacement

Shelf Code Guide. Published 2026.

The exercise identifies that year as footer text, with no article publication or update field. Turning it into an article date changes the supplied evidence.

Finished source note

Shelf Code Guide. Publication and update dates not stated; accessed October 8, 2026.

The footer remains part of the input card, but it cannot fill either missing article-date field. The access date still tells the reader when the source was consulted.

Reuse the Field Checklist

For another source, fill these fields before writing its note:

1. Source title and the actual source URL, when one exists.

2. The publisher's publication label and value, or not stated.

3. The publisher's update label and value, or not stated.

4. The date you actually consulted the source.

5. Other date text, such as a footer, recorded separately with its own label.

6. A finished note that reports the known dates without filling the unknowns.

Read the note back against the fields. A date should not move from one role to another merely because a field is empty. These cards preserve supplied dates; dates alone do not establish that a source is current, correct or authoritative.

Use the blog-post writing guide to place the note near the claim it supports. Your article brief can record why that source belongs in the answer. The finished note should make its date evidence clear without asking the reader to guess what is missing.