EM-DAT Attribution and Citation Policy

UCLouvain 2025

All published materials using or referring to the EM-DAT data or the EM-DAT project or a part of it shall refer to it following the Proper Citation. Any use of the EM-DAT data should be attributed using the Proper Citation.

Minimal Citation Requirements

“Proper Citation” of EM-DAT entails the inclusion of the following mandatory elements:

  • The year of access to the data, or the year of reference to the project;
  • The acronym EM-DAT (including the dash) complemented with a product specificity (e.g., project, data, documentation, country profile);
  • The URL or DOI corresponding to the specific EM-DAT product or reference used.

Example 1 - Project citation in a figure or slideshow presentation:

EM-DAT project, 2025, www.emdat.be

Example 2 - Data citation in a slideshow presentation:

EM-DAT data, 2025, www.emdat.be

Example 3 - Documentation citation in a slideshow presentation:

EM-DAT documentation, 2025, doc.emdat.be

Example 4 - EM-DAT HDX Country Profiles citation in slideshow presentation:

EM-DAT - Country Profiles, Philippines, 2025, https://data.humdata.org/dataset/emdat-country-profiles-phl

Comprehensive Citation Requirements

Whenever possible, users should provide additional information to improve the traceability and identifiability of the dataset or reference:

  • Full date of access (preferably, in ISO format, i.e., YYYY-MM-DD);

  • Full name of the database: Emergency Events Database;

  • Institutional author: UCLouvain / CRED, either abbreviated or spelled out;

  • Location: Brussels, Belgium.

Example 5 - Citation in a text document:

Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), UCLouvain / CRED, Brussels, Belgium, accessed on 2025-06-26, https://www.emdat.be/

Scientific Publication Requirements

For scientific publications or any other publication with high reproducibility and transparency standards, users are encouraged to:

Use the FAIR-compliant 2024 EM-DAT archive dataset, where feasible (note: this version may have a separate licensing framework); + recommendations if not

Cite the 2025 EM-DAT descriptor paper, particularly when describing data structure, scope, or methodology.

Example 6 - EM-DAT archive dataset citation (APA style):

Delforge, D., Wathelet, V., Below, R., Lanfredi Sofia, C., Tonnelier, M., van Loenhout, J. A. F., & Speybroeck, N. (2024). The EM-DAT Emergency Events Database Archive [Dataset]. Open Data @ UCLouvain. https://doi.org/10.14428/DVN/I0LTPH

Example 7 - EM-DAT project descriptor citation:

Delforge, D., Wathelet, V., Below, R., Lanfredi Sofia, C., Tonnelier, M., van Loenhout, J. A. F., & Speybroeck, N. (2025). EM-DAT: The Emergency Events Database. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 124, 105509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105509

Responsibility for Proper Citation

The responsibility for Proper Citation of EM-DAT and data obtained through EM-DAT lies solely with the user. Users must ensure that their citations comply with the guidelines outlined in this policy and the specific citation or editorial standards applicable to their document type. By adhering to these citation guidelines, users contribute to the accurate and responsible use of EM-DAT data, ensuring that the data remains traceable and properly attributed in all types of publications and documents.