Disclaimer

DocQuest is a research platform that automatically indexes and processes documents from publicly accessible archival sources for provenance research. The data presented on this platform is aggregated from various public archives and institutions. The data generated for DocQuest includes full texts, text summaries, structured data, and image vectors. Users can access this data through various search functions.

Non-Exhaustiveness

The collections and records available through DocQuest do not represent the entirety of existing archival holdings. The platform offers curated selections of sources relevant to provenance research that are continuously being developed and expanded. Docquest does not claim to be exhaustive. This applies both to the selection of archival collections and and the completeness of the data generated. Depending on the research question on-site archival research therefore remains essential as part of good scholarly practice.

Transparency About Archival Holdings

The archival materials indexed on this platform originate from public archives and institutions. DocQuest does not hold or manage archival materials itself but provides access to digitised representations and metadata derived from these public sources. We maintain full transparency about which archival holdings were added to the platform and when. To conduct effective research, users should first familiarise themselves with what is and is not searchable through DocQuest.

Limitations of Automated Processing

Parts of the data on this platform have been generated through automated processes, including Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and AI-generated summaries. These processes are subject to inherent limitations:

• OCR: Automated text recognition may produce errors, particularly with handwritten documents, degraded originals, or complex layouts. Documents may be incompletely indexed, and full-text versions of individual pages may be missing.
• AI-generated summaries: Machine-generated content is the result of automated processing and may contain inaccuracies or omissions. It always requires human verification.

As a result, keyword-based full-text searches alone are not sufficient. Researchers should also use sub-collection metadata and other search strategies to ensure thorough and reliable results.

Machine-Generated Data

Any data labelled as machine-generated should be treated as an aid to research, not as a verified source. It is therefore always necessary—and part of scholarly due diligence—to verify search results against the original digitised documents. Users are responsible for verifying the accuracy of information obtained through this platform against the original archival sources.

Citation

DocQuest is not an authoritative source. It contains repurposed documents, archival scans, and data derived from them. When publishing research findings or dossiers, references must be cited from the original public platforms - such as the Invenio portal at the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv), the Archives diplomatiques portal, or the Heidelberg auction catalogues (German Sales). All references should be verified on these platforms and cited accordingly. DocQuest serves as an access point, not as the authoritative source of the archival records.