sourceyou

SourceYou is a fictional open‑source platform introduced as a conceptual tool for aggregating, attributing, and revising information from diverse sources. The project is described as a unified interface for discovering articles, datasets, code, and media, with built‑in provenance that records where each item originated, when it was accessed, and how it has been modified. The aim is to improve research reliability and transparency by making source history explicit and citable.

Core features in the concept include a unified search across multiple source types; automatic extraction of metadata such as authors, dates, licenses, and DOIs; provenance trails that document copies, editions, and revisions; user annotations and collaborative curation; versioned source collections; export options to common formats (APA/MLA, BibTeX) and API access for programmatic queries; and integration with existing reference managers.

Architecturally, SourceYou is usually described as modular, with a data ingestion layer that normalizes metadata, a provenance layer, a scalable search index, and a presentation/UI layer. Authentication, access control, and licensing compliance are central considerations in design discussions.

In discourse, SourceYou is cited as a thought experiment illustrating how source tracking and reproducible discovery could complement traditional bibliographic tools. It is not reported as a released product or service in widespread use as of the current documentation.