---
title: "Importance of source traceability — Knowledge data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/knowledge-source
year: 2026
chapter: "knowledge"
question: "KnowledgeSource"
section: "Knowledge sources and trust"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Importance of source traceability

Source traceability is most critical for code repos and customer support docs; coworker knowledge is trusted by reputation.

Asked as: For each source you selected, how important is it that you can quickly check where the information came from before relying on it for work?  By “check where the information came from,” we mean being able to quickly open or review the original source, context, citation, document, message, ticket, dashboard, or person behind the information. (`KnowledgeSource`, scale, optional, v2026.1)

## Results

### All Respondents

n = 13,214

|  | Important | Least important | Not very important | Somewhat important | Very important |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Code repositories or code comments | 29.9% | 1.7% | 5.8% | 14.4% | 48.1% |
| Coworkers or teammates | 29.4% | 4.4% | 14.9% | 24.6% | 26.8% |
| Customer, support, or sales information | 31.4% | 3.0% | 6.7% | 14.6% | 44.2% |
| Internal chat tools, such as Slack or Teams | 33.8% | 2.3% | 9.5% | 22.9% | 31.5% |
| Internal documentation (i.e. Design, product, or planning docs), wiki, or knowledge base | 32.5% | 1.8% | 9.2% | 19.7% | 36.8% |
| Manager or leadership | 28.4% | 4.5% | 14.0% | 22.3% | 30.8% |
| Meeting notes or transcripts | 34.6% | 3.1% | 7.5% | 20.5% | 34.4% |
| None of these | 13.5% | 10.1% | 12.4% | 28.1% | 36.0% |
| Not sure | 30.0% | 12.9% | 4.3% | 27.9% | 25.0% |
| Official docs | 26.8% | 4.8% | 10.0% | 14.7% | 43.7% |
| Past decisions or architecture records | 33.7% | 1.8% | 6.2% | 21.8% | 36.5% |
| Product, vendor, or API documentation | 27.7% | 3.7% | 9.1% | 16.2% | 43.4% |
| Project management or ticketing tools | 36.7% | 1.8% | 5.4% | 17.5% | 38.5% |
| Stack Overflow | 35.5% | 2.4% | 8.7% | 20.7% | 32.7% |
| Vendor forum | 32.9% | 3.1% | 6.2% | 20.5% | 37.3% |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data.md