Konstanz One-Sided Event Dataset (KOSVED)
The Konstanz One-Sided Event Dataset (KOSVED) is the result of a data gathering effort that was conducted at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz from October 1, 2007 to March 31, 2010. The project team consisted of Margit Bussmann and Gerald Schneider as principal investigators and several assistants and coders.
KOSVED provides detailed information on the magnitude and location of events of one-sided violence in 20 civil wars. Schneider and Bussmann (2013) describe the data set in detail. Information on the variables can be found in the KOSVED codebook.
KOSVED was generously supported by the German Peace Foundation (DSF), the European Commission and the University of Konstanz.
About one-sided violence
One-sided violence occurs frequently during war. Systematic research on this form of violence, however, only started to emerge since the 1990s. Most existing data sets only include information about the most serious episodes of one-sided violence like mass killings or genocides, or are temporarily or spatially highly aggregated.
The KOSVED project offers detailed information about particular instances of one-sided violence. The Figures below taken from Schneider and Bussmann (2012) show that one-sided violence does not follow a random pattern.
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One-Sided Violence in Exemplary Conflicts, Azerbaijan -
One-Sided Violence in Exemplary Conflicts, Sudan (without Darfur) -
One-Sided Violence by Actor Group in Exemplary Conflicts: Darfur -
One-Sided Violence by Actor Group in Exemplary Conflicts: Bosnia with Actor Groups (mode of reported victims)
When using KOSVED, please cite the data set article: Schneider, Gerald and Margit Bussmann. 2013. “Accounting for the Dynamics of One-Sided Violence: Introducing KOSVED”. Journal of Peace Research 50: (5) and, if needed, the codebook: Margit Bussmann and Gerald Schneider (with Constantin Ruhe, Adam Scharpf and Roos van der Haer). 2011. Konstanz One-Sided Violence Event Dataset (KOSVED) Codebook. Version 2.0.
Codebook and Data
Download the full KOSVED dataset here. For KOSVED data organized by event, please visit the KOSVED data page. You may also download the online appendix which includes the codebook, sources and comparison with other data sets.
Student Assistants and Coders
The PIs would like to extend their gratitude to the student assistants and coders who have worked on the project.
Student assistants: Alexander Bräunig, Kathryn Claycamp, Christian Ehinger, Simone Günther, Roos van der Haer, Eva-Maria Niedermeier, Anna Nöh, Constantin Ruhe, and Adam Scharpf
Coders: Ayla Akdoğan; Gwendolin Aschmann; Robert Bauer; Naomi Bosler; Alexander Bräunig; Lena Bringenberg; Elina Brutschin; Kathryn Claycamp; Vanessa Dinter; Johannes Erhard; Sandra Geldmacher; Benedikt Göller; Simone Günther; Johanna Hartung; Ann-Kathrin Hess; Kathrina Hock; Anna Hölzer; Tim Knickel; Julia Koch; Roman Kropp; Juliane Krüger; Sandra Lutz; Jana Merkelbach; Eva-Maria Niedermeier; Lukas Nieslony; Tobias Schill; Marian Schmidt; Christine Siegert; Vita Thormann; Diana Virgilio; Marjenn Witt.