How to design a reproducible public-source research log

Research outputs need provenance, not just answers

When a public-source company screen produces a result without a record of where it came from, the result is hard to review, update, or challenge. A lightweight research log fixes that.

Here is a practical schema that works across company records, public filings, court references, and open-web checks:

• Entity key: the exact legal name, company number if available, and spelling variants.
• Source: a stable URL or document reference.
• Query: the input used to retrieve the item.
• Capture date: public information changes; context matters.
• Observation: a concise factual note, separated from interpretation.
• Review status: confirmed, needs follow-up, or excluded.

This structure has two benefits. First, it prevents a familiar failure mode: conclusions moving from one person's notes into a decision with no retraceable source. Second, it makes monitoring useful—new findings can be compared against a defined baseline rather than a vague memory of the last check.

A public-source workflow should stay proportionate: respect the applicable legal basis, distinguish facts from inferences, and escalate uncertain or consequential findings to qualified review.

For an English starting point for public-source research on Israeli entities, see DataCheck OSINT.

This post was AI-assisted and reviewed before publication.