This section is designed to provide you with a roadmap for the contents and features of the Global
Terrorism Database (GTD) site to assist you as begin to navigate this tool.
About GTD: Text describing the characteristics of the GTD data collection, the evolution of this project and phases of its development, and information on the team involved in collecting, compiling, reviewing, and analyzing the GTD data.
Using GTD: Text description of the scope of the GTD data collection and the sources and methods used for collecting the data, including specification of the definition of terrorism used by GTD. Using GTD also includes a link to the GTD Codebook, a useful document that describes full details on all of the variables included in GTD and the range of possible values for each variable available via the GTD website. Using GTD also includes links to publications that have used versions of the GTD in a range of analyses.
FAQ: Information on what is and is not included in the GTD, and the rationale behind specific decisions.
Terms of Use: Specification of rules for using these data and for citing information from the GTD website.
Contact: Form to send to the GTD team queries on specific incidents, on methodology, or on web-site functionality. This section also includes an option to request a version of the GTD data files. In addition, Contact includes information for media who have questions about GTD, trends in terrorism, or a specific incident.
Searching GTD: Users have three different ways to search for GTD incidents using the website: browsing, keyword search, and the advanced search wizard.
This Date In Terrorism: Highlights terrorist events that have occurred on today's date in past years. This feature updates daily and presents information on different incidents from this date each team you return to the home page. Users can directly link to full incident information for these highlighted cases by clicking "Learn more".
Featured: This rotating element provides information on
new research using GTD, GTD media stories, and announcements and opportunities from START. The
Feature changes each time a user returns to the home page.
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After clicking on the button, users will be presented with a search interface that specifies the search parameters included within the search wizard. Users can select search parameters from among the following categories, as labeled on the Tabs on the left side of the search wizard:
Users can select values in one, several, or all of these categories. In general, the more categories selected, the more restrictive and selective a user's search results will be. To specify parameters for any of the categories, click on the desired tab.
Each tab has a color-coded button indicating whether the user has selected search parameters for that category or not:
If a user does not identify search parameters for any given category (that is, at any of the tabs), the search results will include incidents with any value in that category.
Select incidents that occurred within a selected time period, specified by exact dates or by years, between 1970 and 2017.
Check one or more geographic region to identify those incidents that occurred within that geographic context. (Listing of regions is available in the GTD Codebook.) Regions are presented here in alphabetical order.
Select one or more countries to identify those incidents that occurred within that geographic context. (Listing of countries is available in the GTD Codebook.) Countries are presented here in alphabetical order.
Select the name of one or more organizations to identify those incidents for which that organization is known to be responsible for the attack. Perpetrators are presented here in alphabetical order.
Check one or more weapon type to identify those incidents that involved that weapon type. (Listing of GTD weapon types is available in the GTD Codebook.)
Check one or more attack type to identify those incidents that involved that attack type. (Listing of GTD attack types is available in the GTD Codebook.) Also, specify if you want search results to include only cases that are suicide attacks or only cases that are not suicide attacks. Whether or not the incident is a suicide attack is evaluated independently of attack type.
Check one or more target type to identify those incidents that involved that target type. (Listing of GTD target types is available in the GTD Codebook.)
Customize the definition of terrorism in order to select only those incidents that meet the definition of terrorism that the user is employing.
Specify the number of injuries, fatalities, or injuries and fatalities per incident to select only those incidents that meet those casualty parameters.
The screen for each Tab has a "clear all" function in the upper right-hand corner of the tab's
title bar, which will clear the selections for that tab only. Tabs that allow multiple selections
(Country, region, weapon type, attack type, and target type) have a "check all" function in the upper
right-hand corner of the tab's title bar. Selecting "check all" will check all of the values in
that category, such that the search results will include incidents with any value in that category.
Users can execute their advanced search from any tab in the search wizard by clicking on the
"Search" button at the bottom of the wizard screen.
To clear all selections made in any/all of the categories, a user can click on "Clear All Tabs" at the bottom of the wizard page. Alternatively, users can click on "New Search" at the bottom of the page to clear the search wizard and start the process again.
The results of simple and advanced searches are displayed on the Search Results Page, which includes charting tools, a summary of the search criteria, and a listing of key variables for cases that satisfy the specified search criteria.
The charting tools allow users to view and print various graphical representations of the cases that satisfy the search criteria. Use the tabs on the left to select the variables you want to chart, including incidents over time, country, attack type, target type, weapon type, perpetrator, casualties, fatalities, injuries and regions.
For selected variables, users have a choice of what type of chart to display, including line charts, bar charts, and pie charts. Additional information on charting options is available in the Tools and Tips section below.
The search criteria review box reminds users of the specific search parameters that produced the search results. Note that users can regenerate the results of a particular search by saving or emailing the URL of the Search Results page (See Tools and Tips, below). To edit the search parameters, select "Back to Advanced Search."
The results list displays selected variables for each of the cases that satisfy the search criteria, including GTDID, Date, Country, City, Perpetrator(s), Fatalities, Injuries, and Target Type. Clicking on the GTD ID displays full incident details.
Click "Show Expanded Results" to add Region, Attack Type, and Weapon Type to the list. Click "Hide Expanded Results" to return to the default display of variables.
Users can sort the results list by GTD ID, Country, City, Fatalities, Injuries, or Region (in the Expanded Results) by clicking on the variable name. A red line will appear above the variable name when the results are sorted in ascending order, and below the variable name when results are sorted in descending order.
By default, the list of results displays 20 incidents per page. Select "More Results" to continue paging through results list. Use the options at the bottom of the listed results to jumpt to a particular page or change the number of incidents per page to 30, 50, or 100.
To view the incident detail page, click on an incident's GTD ID number. The incident detail page includes information on the date and location of the attack, as well as an incident summary, and data on the attack, target, hostages, kidnapping, property damage, weapon, perpetrator, casualites, and sources where available. The incident detail page also includes information on whether or not each GTD inclusion criterion is met. Mouse-over the "What," "How," "Who," and "Incident Sources" tabs to help navigate the various dimensions of the data.
For additional information on how selected variables are defined, click "More" and a new window will open.
To return to the Search Results page click "Back to Search Results." To edit advanced search parameters, click "Back to Advanced Search."
All pages except the GTD homepage have a printer-friendly version. Look for the print icon in the upper right-hand side of every page.
All pages except the GTD homepage have an email icon in the upper right-hand side of the page. Use this tool to send the page's URL to yourself or a colleague.
Users can take advantage of the Email tool from the Search Results page to preserve the search criteria that produced the results. Use this tool to save results for future visits to the GTD website.
Select "Export" from the Search Results page to produce a comma-separated value (.csv) file containing the expanded results list. Exports are limited to the first 1,000 results of the search. To request a copy of the full dataset on compact disc, use the Contact Form available from the menu at the top of the page.
For additional information on the data collection methodology and variable definitions the user can refer to the GTD codebook by selecting "Using GTD" from the menu at the top of the page. The codebook will open in a new window.
In some cases the total number of cases represented in a chart exceeds the number of incidents reported in the search results list. This is due to the fact that certain variables, such as Target Type, Weapon Type, and Attack Type, can have multiple values per case. If, for example, a particular attack involved the use of two different types of firearms, both the first weapon type and the second weapon type will be recorded as "Firearms" and the charting tool will count that attack twice. Thus, a chart of weapon type represents the number of times a particular type of weapon is used, rather than the number of attacks that involve a particular type of weapon.
Note that if the results of a search span six years or less, the X-axis of the line chart is measured in months. For results that span more than six years, the X-axis of the line chart is measured in years.
Pie charts contain segments for any values that represent more than .5% of the pie. Values that represent less than .5% of the pie are excluded from the chart, but included in the chart legend.
For line charts and pie charts users can toggle the display of specific values on and off by clicking on that value in the chart legend.
To view a chart in Full Screen mode or to Print the chart, right-click on the chart you are viewing.
To send to the GTD team inquiries or feedback on specific incidents, on methodology, or on web-site functionality, please use the Contact Form available from the menu at the top of the page. Users may also download the GTD data files and documentation or join the START mailing list. . In addition, media representatives who have questions about the GTD, trends in terrorism, or a specific incident can find media contact information here as well