Acquisition routes
The controlled ways Sterling may acquire or refer to a source.
A source being online does not grant permission to scrape, store, derive from, train on or republish it. Every family receives one reviewed disposition; document-specific exceptions remain explicit.
Official API
Use a publisher-operated API within its authentication, rate and attribution rules.
Official feed
Monitor a publisher-operated feed while preserving publication status and version identity.
Official bulk download
Acquire a publisher-operated bulk release only under its dataset- and version-specific terms.
Permitted automated ingestion
Automate publisher access only where current terms and technical controls expressly support it.
Licensed acquisition
Acquire only after a commercial agreement expressly covers Sterling's storage, derivation and product uses.
Link and cite only
Keep material publisher-hosted; retain reviewed metadata and exact citations without copying restricted text.
Metadata only
Retain identity, provenance and rights metadata, but no source content.
Manual research
A human may review the source for a bounded question; any resulting assertion needs independent provenance and rights review.
Discovery only
Use only to discover hypotheses or vocabulary, never as authority for a conclusion.
Prohibited or unsuitable
Do not acquire because permission, provenance, stability or technical suitability is absent.
Source registry: sterling-source-registry@2026-09-11.5. Last reviewed 11 September 2026.