How does date of access work when you have visited the place multiple times.

By NorwegianSardines on Thu, 03/19/2026 - 12:38

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In many places both the Reference Note and the Source List Entry have a date of access.  What date is used when we visit the site multiple times years apart!

 

For example: 

1) I visit a database on October 2, 2023 and create a Reference Note with that access date and a Source List Entry with the year 2023.  

2) I visit the same database on May 5, 2025 and I would create a new Reference Note with the access date in May.

What do I create/use for a Source List Entry?  Is a new Entry created with the 2025 year, or can I use the first Entry with the year of 2023. ?  Is their another option I'm not thinking of?

As with any database information can change an I want to correctly identify when I saw the data!

Submitted byEEon Fri, 03/20/2026 - 10:05

Hello, NorwegianSardines, recording "date of access" to online materials has at least two purposes.  One, to record the version of the database or article that we took our information from (given that online material is often updated); and two, to record that the URL was alive and working on that particular date. 

Whether we update an access date used in a prior citation depends upon what we do when we revisit the site. If we revisit a database to glean new information on a different subject, we would not change the dates on prior citations to that database, unless we actually reviewed the previously captured information and confirmed that each piece is exactly the same as when we captured it. 

Put another way: Our citation is not just to the database. Our citation is to the specific piece of information we extract from the database. If we capture a piece of information and then go back to that piece of information on a later date

  • we may wish to update our access date to show that the information was still there on that later date. 
  • If we capture a piece of information from a database and then use that database for something else, we would not update older citations. We would record the new access date for the new piece of information we are extracting.

For the generic Source List Entry, if it's a site you frequently reconsult, you can simply cite the year or the range of years.

And, of course, when we prepare our research  for publication, we would always recheck each and every citation to an online source and make sure that the URL is operational and that the information is exactly the same. In fact, it's wise to recheck it twice amid that publication prep: first, when we begin, to ensure that we do not have to seek new sources for material that has evaporated on the Internet; and second, immediately before going to press, to ensure that the URL or the information has not changed.