Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)

A new article by UCDP's Magnus Öberg and Mert Can Yilmaz in Research & Politics reveals that differences between major conflict datasets aren't driven by sourcing strategies or inclusion thresholds as previously claimed.

Some key findings:
- Most differences stem from how projects handle ambiguity & uncertainty in poor information environments.
- Auxiliary coding rules (e.g., counting "people killed" as 2 vs 10 fatalities) explain 90%+ of differences in some cases.
- Source evaluation standards matter more than sourcing strategies.
- Stable definitions are essential for reliable measurement, not a flaw.

Read the article:

Measurement issues in conflict event data: Addressing some misconceptions about what drives differences between human-coded event datasets - Magnus Öberg, Mert Can Yilmaz, 2025 Clionadh Raleigh, Roudabeh Kishi, and Andrew Linke recently compared their own Armed Conflict Location and Events Dataset (ACLED) to three other conflict event ...