On the record is a term used (usually in journalism) to describe a passing of information (usually from a source to a journalist) that may be repeated by the receiving party without objection by the originator, and that the speaker may be publicly identified as the source of the information

This is in direct contrast to "off the record", in which the speaker requests (usually as a condition of speaking) that none of the information communicated to the recipient be repeated to anyone else, usually including the fact that the source spoke with the recipient at all. The recipient is free to use their own personal knowledge of the received information any way they see fit, usually as a "tip-off" to their further investigations.

The journalistic terms background and deep background are matters of degree between "on the record" and "off the record".

"On the record" also refers to any information from a meeting or conference that has been recorded for posterity or future reference; either as an audio or video recording, as a transcript, or as minutes.