A registry for designating authoritative sourcing of data from a data environment in a computer readable storage medium. Selected data content resides into a first data subject area in the form of a common business language, and metadata including characteristics of data stores in the data environment resides into a second data subject area, which is a metadata repository. Data linking a term in the first data subject area with an authoritative location of data associated with the term, as identified in the second data subject area, resides into a third subject area, which is the registry. A basis of authority of the data location and operating scope of the data may be designated in the third data store. Operating scopes may be functional, geographic, temporal, organizational, or a combination thereof. A computer program product and computer readable memory system for designating authoritative sourcing in a data environment are provided.