Record provenance
Provenance is the account of where a record came from: who issued it, when, by what method, from which sources and through which transformations it passed before reaching the reader. Without it a record cannot be checked, weighed or corrected, only trusted or ignored. This page sets out how provenance is captured and expressed, why lineage chains break, and what the people who rely on registry records need to see before they do.
- 01In briefDefinition and scope
- 02The question4 mechanisms
- 03Key terms3
- 04FieldH3 field plate
- 05Indicators7
- 06PipelineRun graph
- 07Sources7
- 08Decision holders4
- 09Methods3
GCRI · Established · service level R0
The short answer.
Record provenance is the account of where a record came from: who issued it, when, by what method, from which sources and through which transformations it passed. Without it a record cannot be checked, weighed or corrected. The W3C PROV model gives a standard way to express it, and lineage often breaks at hand-offs between systems.
People and hazards in World.
For record provenance, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on true-colour imagery, night lights and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on World; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
People and hazards, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
For record provenance, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on true-colour imagery, night lights and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on World; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · GDACS · Copernicus Sentinel-2 L2A · NASA HLS S30Sources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). CC BY 4.0
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
- Live: GDACS (EC JRC / UN OCHA) Events are indicative, not official warnings.
- Observed (EO): Copernicus Sentinel-2 L2A (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026), Microsoft Planetary Computer
- Observed (EO): NASA HLS S30 (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Optional layers (35 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Vegetation greenness (NDVI), rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra NDVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
Record provenance: how the risk develops.
Issuer, date, method and source lineage. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Lineage breaks at hand-offs
Records pass between spreadsheets, databases, aggregators and exports. Each step can drop the issuer, the source reference or the method note. Once the chain is cut, later copies look authoritative while nothing connects them to what they were derived from.
Issuer ambiguity
Organisation names change, merge and are spelt many ways, and people share names. Without persistent identifiers for issuers, two bodies are recorded as one or one as two, and responsibility for an assertion can no longer be established.
Method drift
The method behind a field changes, through a new coding rule, a new instrument or a revised definition, while the field name stays the same. A series then joins incompatible values, and no reader can see where the join is.
Laundering through aggregation
An unsourced claim is copied by an aggregator, quoted in a report and indexed by search engines. Each reuse adds apparent authority and removes context, until the claim is cited back to its origin as if it were independent confirmation.
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Data lineage | The traceable path of data from its origin through each transformation to its current form. |
| W3C PROV | A family of W3C specifications for representing provenance as entities, activities and agents. |
| Content hash | A fixed-length fingerprint computed from a record's content, which changes if any byte changes. |
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Records with complete issuer, date and method | share of records | monthly | Schema validation | OBSERVED |
| Lineage depth to a primary source | number of derivation steps | per record | Provenance graph | OBSERVED |
| Unresolved source references | count | weekly | Resolver checks | OBSERVED |
| Transformations without a recorded agent | count | monthly | Provenance graph audit | OBSERVED |
| Records with content hashes or signatures | share of records | monthly | Integrity check | OBSERVED |
| Issuers with a persistent identifier | share of issuers | quarterly | Identifier reconciliation | OBSERVED |
| Provenance inferred rather than declared | share of provenance statements | quarterly | Curation review | ESTIMATED |
From sources to decisions.
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| W3C PROV-O and PROV-DM | The standard vocabulary of entities, activities and agents for expressing provenance graphs | W3C document licence, free to implement |
| DataCite Metadata Schema | Creator, contributor, date, relation and related-identifier fields for research outputs | CC0 for metadata |
| ROR (Research Organization Registry) | Persistent identifiers for research organisations, with name variants, relationships and succession | CC0, no restrictions |
| ORCID public data file | Persistent identifiers for researchers, with linked works, affiliations and funding | CC0 |
| GLEIF Legal Entity Identifier data | Identifiers, legal names and parent relationships for legal entities | CC0, no restrictions |
| PREMIS Data Dictionary | Preservation metadata for events, agents and rights on digital objects | Free to use, maintained by the Library of Congress |
| RO-Crate | A specification for packaging research data with its provenance in JSON-LD | Open specification, attribution |
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Nexus Registry prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Data stewards | Whether a record's lineage is complete enough to publish or must be held for curation | Provenance completeness, unresolved references and transformations without a recorded agent |
| Journal and report editors | Whether a cited registry record can support a claim in a manuscript | Issuer identity, method, date and the depth of lineage to a primary source |
| Research integrity officers | Whether an assertion was altered, misattributed or fabricated | Time-stamped provenance graph, content hashes and the full edit history |
| National statistics offices | Whether administrative or registry records can enter official statistics | Source lineage, method stability over time and documented transformations |
Outputs this topic produces
- Record views listing issuer, issue date, method and source references for each assertion
- Provenance graphs tracing derived records back to their primary sources
- A provenance completeness check applied to every record before publication
- Method change notes marking where a field's definition or instrument changed
What provenance research asks.
- What is the smallest set of facts that lets a reader judge a record's origin?
- How much lineage should be captured automatically, and how much asserted by people?
- How can provenance survive when records are copied, transformed or merged?
- How do we record a source that cannot be disclosed?
- How can a lineage claim itself be verified rather than trusted?
How lineage is lost.
Lineage is usually lost at boundaries: when a dataset is exported to a spreadsheet, when a figure is retyped into a report, when two sources are merged without recording which value came from where. Each step can be innocent, yet together they produce numbers whose origin no one can reconstruct. Archival science calls the related principle respect for provenance: records keep their link to the body that created them and to their original order.
Modern provenance models describe three kinds of thing: entities such as datasets and reports, activities such as a model run or a review, and agents such as people, institutions and software. The W3C PROV family of specifications expresses these relationships in a form machines can read, and the Registry's lineage design is intended to follow it, as described on provenance and attribution.
Capturing and checking lineage.
- 01
Issuer and authority
Each record names who issued it and under what authority, so a reader knows whose word it is.
- 02
Activity records
Transformations, model runs and reviews are recorded with their method version and date.
- 03
Integrity checks
Cryptographic hashes can show that a file has not changed since it was recorded, a technique from cybersecurity and cryptography.
- 04
Limits
Provenance shows where a record came from, not whether its content is right. Lineage is only as complete as the steps that were captured, and self-declared provenance can be false. Restricted sources can be named but not inspected.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
- Data engineering, interoperability and stewardshipSchema-validated ingestion · Persistent identifier reconciliation · Lineage capture in pipelinesApplied here
- Cybersecurity and cryptographyTamper-evident record history · Signed exports and releases · Threat modelling of edit pathsApplied here
- Digital identity and public digital systemsIssuer authentication and authority · Contributor disambiguation by the personApplied here
Questions and answers.
What is the difference between provenance and a source?
What happens to records with incomplete provenance?
Does a digital signature make a record true?
Why do issuers need persistent identifiers?
Is provenance the same as citation?
What happens when a source is corrected?
Can provenance include restricted sources?
Around Nexus Registry.
Bring your expertise to this field.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.