I prefer not to put source/Javadoc download settings into the project pom.xml file as I feel these are user preferences, not project properties. Instead, I place them in a profile in my settings.xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>sources-and-javadocs</id>
<properties>
<downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
<downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
</properties>
</profile>
</profiles>
<activeProfiles>
<activeProfile>sources-and-javadocs</activeProfile>
</activeProfiles>
</settings>