Historical Record of the Data and Its Origins: Data Provenance

Provenance is the documentation which describes the processing performed on data during the data life cycle. It is an essential component in establishing reliability and reproducibility within radio astronomy and other scientific disciplines. This chapter begins by outlining how astronomical provenance is modeled within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) and their extensions to the W3C PROV model. The subsequent segment delves into the diverse tools and methods employed for generating provenance. Following that, the chapter explores the uses of data provenance within astronomy. Finally, it concludes with a retrospective look at past provenance implementations and the lessons that can be learnt from them with regards to scalability, understandability, and interoperability.