ProvenanceSource

ProvenanceSource is a term used in data governance, digital libraries, and information provenance to denote the origin of the provenance information itself. It answers questions about where provenance data came from, who produced it, when, and under what authority. In practice, it helps establish accountability and trust in data pipelines and archival records.

Typical fields in a provenance source description include a sourceIdentifier, sourceAgency, sourceVersion, retrievalMethod, and timestamp, along with optional confidence levels and jurisdiction or access rights. These fields enable systems to trace provenance back to a concrete origin, support auditing, and facilitate version tracking when provenance records are updated or corrected.

Encoding and standards: ProvenanceSource metadata is commonly expressed as part of broader provenance metadata using formats such as the W3C PROV data model (PROV-O), JSON-LD, XML, or CSV. In the PROV worldview, provenance data is composed of entities, activities, and agents; ProvenanceSource provides a meta-layer that attributes the provenance record to a concrete origin.

Applications: in digital libraries, ProvenanceSource helps verify authenticity; in data science, it supports reproducibility; in supply chains, it records the origin of provenance data about goods. It also plays a role in research data management, where clear attribution for data origins is essential.

Limitations and challenges: accuracy depends on the reliability of the source; updating provenance sources can create complex lineage; privacy and policy considerations may limit disclosure of source details. Efforts to standardize ProvenanceSource concepts continue to evolve alongside broader provenance frameworks.

See also: provenance, data provenance, PROV (W3C), metadata.