Syllabus Project

The Open Syllabus Project (OSP) is a large-scale academic research initiative that has collected and analyzed millions of college course syllabi from universities worldwide. For OSINT investigators, OSP is a specialized but powerful resource for mapping academic trends, verifying institutional connections, and understanding what knowledge a claimed expert is likely to have based on what they studied or taught.

The OSP Explorer allows users to search for books, articles, and other materials by how frequently they appear on course syllabi across institutions and disciplines. An investigator can search for a specific textbook title and see which universities use it, in which departments, and at what level — providing contextual intelligence about academic environments.

For subject matter experts who claim credentials, OSP can help verify whether their claimed field of study is coherent — whether the books and papers they cite are actually standard in that academic discipline. This type of analysis supports due diligence on expert witnesses, consultants, and academic professionals.

OSP also exposes co-assignment patterns — texts that frequently appear together in syllabi — which helps investigators understand the intellectual structure of a field. If investigating academic fraud or plagiarism, understanding what texts a person was likely exposed to based on their claimed education provides useful baseline intelligence.

The Galaxy view in OSP visualizes relationships between texts and disciplines, offering a network-style analysis of academic fields. This can be useful for understanding interdisciplinary work or identifying where claimed expertise does or does not fit within established academic frameworks.

Document specific syllabus matches with school name, course code, and term where available. OSP data can be combined with LinkedIn education history, institutional directories, and publication databases to build a comprehensive academic profile.