IQuellen

IQuellen is a modular framework and data standard designed to manage, link, and verify information sources across digital systems. It emphasizes provenance, reliability, and reproducibility, providing a common interface to ingest, annotate, and query sources.

The name derives from the German Quellen, meaning sources; I stands for Integration or Interoperability. Originating as an open standard and open‑source project, it aimed to improve citation workflows in research, libraries, and media archives. Development occurred through collaboration among universities, archives, and data initiatives in the 2010s and has since evolved through community releases.

Key features include importer adapters for diverse formats, metadata mapping, provenance tracking with source lineages, licensing and rights metadata, data quality scoring, and conflict resolution. The framework supports graph-based representations, RDF or JSON-LD exchange, REST and SPARQL-like querying, and both online and federated workflows.

Architecturally, IQuellen comprises a core engine, adapters, a provenance module, indexing and search, and a user interface. Its data model centers on sources, citations, and evidence statements linked to evidence. It emphasizes extensibility via plug-ins and community‑developed schemas.

Applications include digital libraries, research data management, journalism, and fact-checking, where IQuellen helps track claims to their origins and exposes source metadata and licensing to users. It supports audit trails, versioning, and transparent workflows through governance guidelines, promoting transparency and reproducibility in information ecosystems.