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Source Provenance Triangulation

Evaluate an account by tracing source type, origin, proximity, perspective, corroboration, and confidence before treating its claims as settled.

The Diagnostic Story

Symptom: An account assembles evidence and confidently states its conclusions, but nowhere does it expose whether each source was firsthand or derivative, independent or circular, close to events or distant from them. Generic citations stand in for verified claims; certainty gets copied from one synthesis into the next without anyone checking what the original actually established. When accounts conflict, there is no map for deciding which one to trust or what can responsibly be inferred from the combination.

Pivot: Turn evidence use into an explicit claim-support map: classify each source by type, document its provenance and proximity to the event, test whether corroborating sources are truly independent, and attach a reasoned confidence label to each claim rather than to the account as a whole.

Resolution: Reconstruction becomes more reliable because every claim is traceable to a source with a known type and known limitations. Contradictions are preserved rather than smoothed away, uncertainty is visible at the claim level, and revision paths exist when new evidence arrives.

Reach for this when you hear…

[investigative journalism] “We have four sources saying the same thing, but three of them are citing the same original report — that's one source, not four.”

[clinical trial review] “The meta-analysis looks strong until you see that half the included studies came from the same lab using the same instrument.”

[intelligence analysis] “Before we brief on this, we need to know whether that intercept is firsthand or a translation of a translation — the confidence level is completely different.”

Mechanisms / Implementations

  • Source Criticism Protocol: A source criticism protocol implements the archetype through structured questions about authorship, purpose, audience, context, proximity, and transmission.
  • Evidence Provenance Log: An evidence provenance log records origins, custody, transformations, access dates, and gaps.
  • Triangulation Matrix: A triangulation matrix places claims against sources so agreement, disagreement, independence, and source-type diversity can be seen at once.
  • Audit Trail Review: Inspects logs, version histories, document histories, or system traces for gaps and transformations.
  • Chain of Custody Record: A chain of custody record documents who handled evidence, when, under what conditions, and with what transformations.
  • Witness / Source Comparison: Witness or source comparison evaluates firsthand accounts by role, timing, memory risk, access, incentive, and corroboration against non-testimonial sources.
  • Citation Lineage Review: Traces claims through references and derivative accounts.
  • Confidence Annotation Rubric: A confidence annotation rubric attaches reasoned confidence levels to claims.
  • Conflicting Source Table: A conflicting source table keeps contradictions visible.

Abstractions this archetype builds on — directly (a source ingredient) or as a related pattern. Links follow the typed catalog namespace.

Built directly on (3)

Also references 6 related abstractions

Variants

Narrower or domain-specific specializations that share this archetype's core structure. Recognized variants are established; candidate variants are provisional.

Primary Source Proximity Check · subtype · recognized

Focuses the archetype on how close a firsthand source is to the event, decision, or condition being reconstructed.

Secondary Interpretation Layer Review · subtype · recognized

Examines how later analysis, synthesis, citation, translation, or commentary changes what a source is taken to mean.

Perspective Triangulation · subtype · recognized

Compares sources from differently positioned observers so blind spots, incentives, and excluded standpoints become visible.

Chain of Custody Validation · implementation variant · recognized

Tracks custody, transformation, access, and handling of evidence so later claims can be tied to an accountable source path.