Integrating Conflict Event Data

Journal of Conflict Resolution 63(5): 1337-1364, 2019; https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002718777050

42 Pages Posted: 15 Feb 2022

See all articles by Karsten Donnay

Karsten Donnay

Department of Political Science, University of Zurich

Eric Dunford

Georgetown University

Erin McGrath

University of Maryland

David Backer

University of Maryland

David E. Cunningham

Department of Government & Politics

Date Written: June 26, 2018

Abstract

The growing multitude of sophisticated event-level data collection enables novel analyses of conflict. Even when multiple event data sets are available, researchers tend to rely on only one. We instead advocate integrating information from multiple event data sets. The advantages include facilitating analysis of relationships between different types of conflict, providing more comprehensive empirical measurement, and evaluating the relative coverage and quality of data sets. Existing integration efforts have been performed manually, with significant limitations. Therefore, we introduce Matching Event Data by Location, Time and Type (MELTT)—an automated, transparent, reproducible methodology for integrating event data sets. For the cases of Nigeria 2011, South Sudan 2015, and Libya 2014, we show that using MELTT to integrate data from four leading conflict event data sets (Uppsala Conflict Data Project–Georeferenced Event Data, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, Social Conflict Analysis Database, and Global Terrorism Database) provides a more complete picture of conflict. We also apply multiple systems estimation to show that each of these data sets has substantial missingness in coverage.

Suggested Citation

Donnay, Karsten and Dunford, Eric and McGrath, Erin and Backer, David and Cunningham, David E., Integrating Conflict Event Data (June 26, 2018). Journal of Conflict Resolution 63(5): 1337-1364, 2019; https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002718777050, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4016336 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4016336

Karsten Donnay (Contact Author)

Department of Political Science, University of Zurich ( email )

Affolternstrasse 56
Zürich, CH-8050
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www.karstendonnay.net

Eric Dunford

Georgetown University ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

Erin McGrath

University of Maryland ( email )

College Park
College Park, MD 20742
United States

David Backer

University of Maryland ( email )

College Park
College Park, MD 20742
United States

David E. Cunningham

Department of Government & Politics ( email )

College Park
College Park, MD 20742
United States

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