Sourcesthose

Sourcesthose is a term used in discussions of epistemic transparency to describe a two-layer approach to sourcing in knowledge production. It designates both the complete set of potential materials (sources) relevant to a topic and the subset of those materials that a researcher actually consults to form a conclusion (those). The distinction is intended to make the reasoning process more auditable by making explicit which sources were considered and which were not, along with the reasons for their inclusion or exclusion.

Origin and usage: The term is a neologism that has appeared mainly in discussions about provenance, citation, and reproducibility. It is not widely standardized and is often used in exploratory or pedagogical contexts to illustrate traceability in scholarly work and journalism.

Implementation: In practice, sourcesthose can be supported by metadata practices that attach to each source a consulted flag, a justification, and a link to the specific claim it supports. Reproducible workflows, such as data science notebooks and research reports, may incorporate sourcesthose concepts to document the decision path from sources to conclusions.

Criticism: Critics argue that requiring explicit labeling of all potential sources can be burdensome and may slow research, potentially privileging exhaustive sourcing over substantive argument. Others note the risk of misapplication if the notion of “potential sources” is ill-defined or subjective.

See also: provenance, citation, reproducibility, transparency, audit trail.

Note: This article describes a conceptual framework rather than a widely adopted standard.