Review of University of Illinois (2015): The Social, Political and Economic Event Database Project (SPEED)

The Social, Political and Economic Event Database Project (SPEED) is a technology intensive dataset developed by the University of Illinois. It offers worldwide social, political and economic event data from a global archive of news reports covering the time period from January 1st 1946 to 2008 in the form of the two datasets "SPEED Global Random Sample (1945-2005)" and the "SPEED Liberia, Philippines, and Sierra Leone (1979-2008) data" as downloadable material from their website. The data was collected to provide insights into the dynamics of conflict across contexts, its evolution and how violent conflict can be anticipated and avoided in the future (1). Of the 62.000+ total entries in this dataset, there are 1.800+ events listed for the countries of Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia covered by Discuss Data. The data review contains a link leading to the official Social, Political and Economic Event Database Project (SPEED) website from which both the dataset and the codebook, as well as additional information are available as a free download.