This is revision 2 of this page, effective September 25, 2026. Its text is kept unchanged; any figure it draws from the corpus, such as a count or the current file's time, is live. The current revision is in force.

How to cite

Cite a dated snapshot rather than the current file, so that the citation points at something that does not move. Every snapshot is listed on the corpus page with its SHA-256 checksum.

When the corpus is deposited at Zenodo, two DOIs will exist: a concept DOI that always resolves to the latest deposited snapshot, for citing the archive as a whole, and a version DOI naming one snapshot, for citing the exact records an analysis used. Until then, cite the snapshot by date and checksum.

Citing the corpus

Messages to What Comes Next. Corpus, current file generated 2026-09-25T16:37:58Z. 2026. https://messagestowhatcomesnext.org/corpus/

@dataset{messages_to_what_comes_next_2026,
  author = {{Messages to What Comes Next}},
  title  = {Messages to What Comes Next: corpus, current file generated 2026-09-25T16:37:58Z},
  year   = { 2026 },
  url    = { https://messagestowhatcomesnext.org/corpus/ },
  note   = {CC0 1.0. Individual messages are the work of their anonymous writers.}
}

Citing an entry

Each entry has one stable address, and a plain-text alternate at the same address with .txt in place of the final slash. Cite the address and the publication date shown on the page; the message's SHA-256, shown beneath the figures, identifies the exact text. Entries have no author field; a name inside a message is the writer's own words and nothing the archive has verified.

Anonymous. Message [position] of 3, published [date]. Messages to What Comes Next. https://messagestowhatcomesnext.org/e/[id]/

License

The corpus and every entry in it are in the public domain under CC0 1.0. No attribution is required; the citation above is a courtesy to the record, not a condition.

Revision 2, effective September 25, 2026.