MLA Citation Style 9th Edition: Publication Date

• This element begins with a number (year or date) or a capital letter for the name of the month.
• Full dates can be given in the day-month-year style only in the works cited list (example: 28 Jan 2021). You may use the month day year style (example: Jan 28, 2021) also in the body of the writing, but be consistent (MLA 2.138).
• Use abbreviations for months with names longer than four letters: 
  • Jan.
  • Feb.
  • Mar.
  • Apr.
  • Aug.
  • Sept.
  • Oct.
  • Nov.
  • Dec.
• If a season is given instead of a month, include the season in lower case (MLA 5.79):
  • spring 2020
• If there are multiple dates available, give the date that is most relevant to your use of the source (MLA 5.68)
• Give the date as shown or use what is most relevant to your use of the source. If the month, day, and year are given, use all three. If only the year is given, that is sufficient.
• For online content, give the date the material was posted online, unless it was originally made available through another medium which is more relevant to your use of the source.(MLA 5.73)
• If the publication date is obtained from other sources, put the information in square brackets, for example [1989] (MLA 5.122) If unsure of the accuracy of the information, add a question mark [1989?] (MLA 5.83).
• This element ends with a comma, unless it is the final element in an entry.

Book:

DiYanni, Robert, editor. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed., McGraw Hill, 2007.

Republished work:

Citation description:
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Year of original publication. Current publisher, Year of republication.

Dickens, Charles. Tale of Two Cities. 1859. Bantam Books, 1981.