June28,2017

PertherequestyousubmittedviatheGTDwebsitepleasenotethatthedatadownload/discincludesthe
followingfiles:

GTD19702016datafile,includingdataonterroristattacksbetween1970and2016
GTD19701994datafile,includingdataonterroristattacksbetween1970and1994
GTD19952012datafile,includingdataonterroristattacksbetween1995and2012
GTD20132016datafile,includingdataonterroristattacksbetween2013and2016
GTD1993datafile,includingcasescollectedinanefforttoreconstructthemissing1993data(seebelow
foradditionalinformation)
GTDcodebook,explainingthevariablesandcodingschemafortheGTD
GlobalTerrorismDatabaseTermsofUse

Pleasenotethatthedatainthefirstfileisidenticaltothedatainthesecond,third,andfourthfiles.Thesmaller
filesareprovidedforuserswhorequirealimitednumberofrowsperfile.

Regardingthefifthfile,usersshouldbeawarethatpriortothetransferoftheoriginalGTDdatafromPinkerton
GlobalIntelligenceServices(PGIS)toSTART,allrecordsofterroristattacksduring1993werelost.Severalefforts
weremadetorecovertheseincidentsfromoriginalnewssources.Unfortunately,duetothechallengesof
retrospectivedatacollectionforeventsthathappenedmorethanfifteenyearsago,thenumberofcasescollected
for1993isonly15%ofthenumberreportedbyPGIS.Asaconsequenceweexcludeall1993attacksfromtheGTD
datatopreventusersfrommisinterpretingthelowfrequencyin1993asanactualcount.However,weprovide
thereconstructed1993casesforthoseresearcherswhowouldfindvalueinexploringtheseincidents.Together,
withthePGISrecordedmarginalcountsforeachcountryprovidedintheGTDcodebook,analystscanusethese
datatointerpolatevaluesforthemissing1993cases.

ItisthepolicyoftheDepartmentofHomelandSecuritytoprotecttheprivacyofindividuals.Theinformationyou
haverequestedfromtheGlobalTerrorismDatabasemaycontaininformationrelatedtospecificindividuals.DHS
requiresthatyoutakeeverypossibleprecautiontoprotectthisinformationandthatyouuseitforthepurposeof
advancingtheunderstandingofterrorism.Ifyouencounteranyinformationaboutyourselfthatyoubelievetobe
inaccurateandwishtohaveremovedfromthedatabase,pleasecontactmeatgtd@start.umd.edu.

AwebbasedinterfacefortheGTD,includingadditionalinformationonthedataanditsusage,isavailableat
www.start.umd.edu/gtd.

ThankyouforyourinterestintheGlobalTerrorismDatabase.Wehopethatyoufindittobeausefultool.Ifyou
encounteranyproblemswiththeenclosedCDoritscontents,pleasecontacttheGTDteamviaemailat
gtd@start.umd.edu.Wewelcomeyourfeedbackonthedataanditsapplicationtoyourwork.

Sincerely,

ErinMiller
GTDProgramManager,START

8400 Baltimore Ave, Suite 250 College Park, MD 20740 301.405.6600 www.start.umd.edu