Persons
Persons are natural persons who are affiliated with, or hold positions of command over a specific organization at a particular point in time.
Summary of person fields
Name of Field | Description | Examples of Use |
A unique number for each person in the dataset |
| |
Full name of the person, including given, patronym and surnames |
| |
Other names used to identify a person |
| |
Country where an organization that a person is a member of is located |
| |
Person: Gender | The gender of the person. |
|
Person: Date of Birth | Date person was born |
|
Person: Date of Death | Date person died |
|
Person: Deceased? | Is the person deceased but the exact date of death is unknown? | field to be implemented |
Person: Biography | Details on the person's life, generally outside of the Monitor's data format | field to be implemented |
Person: External Link | Links to information on the person from third party sites, such as Wikipedia | |
The organization that the person is a member of |
| |
The role a person plays in the organization that is not evident from entries in |
| |
A title held by a person that is separate from their rank or role |
| |
The official position of a person in the hierarchy of a security force |
| |
The earliest date a source evidences a relationship between a person and an organization, either through direct reference in the source or by the date of its publication |
| |
Indicates whether the value in |
| |
Person Membership: Context Start date | Indicates the stated reason for the start of the person membership |
|
The latest date a source evidences a relationship between a person and an organization, either through direct reference in the source or by the date of its publication |
| |
Indicate whether the value in |
| |
Person Membership: Context End date | Indicates the stated reason for the end of the person membership |
|
Analysis, commentary and notes about the person that do not fit into the data structure |
|
Person: ID
Description
A unique number for each person in the dataset.
Type of field
Text and numbers
Example of use
a848de4e-ebeb-49d6-9099-7e68ca3b57fc
Guidance on use
This field contains an automatically-generated unique identifier for each person in the Monitor’s database.
Person: Name
Description
Full name of the person, including given, patronym and surnames.
Type of field
Text and numbers
Example of use
Magaji Musa Majia'a
Guidance on use
Different sources will spell the name of a person in different ways, so we choose a name to be a canonical entry for that person. Whenever possible, the canonical entry will contain the most complicated or complete version of a person's name, even if it has the smallest number of citations. For example Magaji Musa Majia'a will be used instead of Magaji Majiaa. Other names will be placed in the Person: Aliases field (documented below).
Person: Aliases
Description
Other names used to identify a person.
Type of field
Text and numbers, free entry
Example of use
Virgilio Daniel Méndez Bazan, Virgilio Daniel Mendez Bazán
Guidance on use
Different sources will spell a person's name in different ways. We choose and record a canonical version of a person's name in the Person: Name field. All other spellings that we have found are treated as aliases and stored in this field. This field may contain multiple values, which will be separated by a semi-colon.
Person: Country
Description
Country where an organization that a person is a member of is located.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
mx
Guidance on use
Values for this field are chosen from the list of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, which can be found (on the ISO website and on Wikipedia. This field does not denote the citizenship or country of origin of a person. Rather, it denotes where a unit they are a member of is located. For example, if 1 Batallón de Infantería is located in Juarez, Mexico, the organization will be assigned a value of mx in the field Organization: Country. Any person who is a member of that organization will be assigned a value of mx in the field Person: Country as well. A person may have multiple entries for Person: Country where our research shows they or an organization they are a member of is deployed to different countries.
Person: Gender
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Date of Birth
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Date of Death
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Deceased
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Biography
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Gender
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: External Link
Description
The organization that the person is a member of.
Type of field
Text and numbers, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
35 Batallón de Infantería
Guidance on use
Values in this field correspond with names of organizations that already exist in the dataset (recording in the field Organization: Name. A person can have multiple memberships of the same organization if there is a change to their entries for Person: Rank, Person: Title or Person: Role with respect to the organization. An example of this is where a person is promoted. Another case where a person can have multiple membership of the same organization is where research indicates there are clear start or end dates to a membership. An example of where this might occur is if a person does multiples "tours" in a particular organization.
Person: Role
Description
The role a person plays in the organization that is not evident from entries in Person: Title or Person: Rank.
Type of field
Text and numbers, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Commander
Guidance on use
The most common value we record in Person: Role is Commander.
There are a variety of other roles a person can have including Second in Command, Chief of Staff along with other less common entries. They will vary between countries.
As a special note, heads of academic or other security force institutions will sometimes be referred to as the Commandant. In these cases, Commandant should be recorded in the Title field, and their role should be recorded as Commander.
If a person is referred to as “the head”, “chief” or some other variation indicating that they are in charge of a unit, they should be regarded as the Commander.
Person: Title
Description
A title held by a person that is separate from their rank or role.
Type of field
Text and numbers, free entry
Example of use
General Officer Commanding, Jefe Del Estado Mayor
Guidance on use
The range of titles will vary from country to country. For example, commanders of army divisions in Nigeria, who usually hold the rank of Major General also hold the title of General Officer Commanding.
Person: Rank
Description
The official position of a person in the hierarchy of a security force.
Type of field
Text and numbers, free entry
Example of use
General de División, Teniente Coronel, Air Vice Marshal
Guidance on use
We remove any dashes that are contained in Person: Rank values.
For example, we would enter
Brigadier Generalrather thanBrigadier-General.
Person Membership: Date first cited
Description
The earliest date a source evidences a relationship between a person and an organization, either through direct reference in the source or by the date of its publication.
Type of field
Date (YYYY-MM-DD), fuzzy
Example of use
2012, 2012-11, 2012-11-23
Guidance on use
Along with the fields Person membership: Start date?, Person Membership: Date last cited and Person Membership: Open-ended? the field Person Memberships: Date first cited provides data about the time period over which we can evidence a person's relationships to an organization
The Person Membership: Date first cited field contains a date that is either:
The earliest date found in the content of a source that specifically references the relationship between a person and an organization; or,
The earliest date of publication of sources that makes reference to the relationship between a person and an organization.
For example, if three sources published on 1 January 2012, 1 February 2012 and 1 March 2012 all refer to this person as a commander, we will use 1 January 2012 as the value in
Person Membership: Date first cited. If the source published on 1 March 2012 refers to this person as a commander on the date of 30 June 2011, we will use 30 June 2011 as the value inPerson Membership: Date first cited.
The values for Person: Title, Person: Role and Person: Rank held by a person are assumed to continue until a source indicates a change in any of those values. If the person's role, title or rank changes a new entry will need to be created to document that change. This new entry will have updated values for Person Membership: Date first cited and related date fields.
For example, if a source indicates that Major General Jack Johnson is the commander of 1 Division as of 2007-08-20 all of the relevant fields would be entered based on that source. If another source states that Jack Johnson retired from the 1 Division on 2008-01-10 the last citation for Jack Johnson's affiliation would be 2008-01-10. However, this would also assume that Jack Johnson continued to have the Role of Commander and the Rank of Major General from 2007-08-20 until 2008-01-10.
In keeping with all date fields we include in this dataset, where our research can only find a year or a year and a month, this can be included in Person Membership: Date first cited.
This field is clarified by the field Person Membership: Start date? which indicates whether the date included here is the actual date on which the relationship between a person and an organization started.
Person Membership: Start date
Description
Indicates whether the value in Person Membership: Date first cited is the actual date on which a person became a member of this organization, or the earliest date a source has referred to the relationship.
Type of field
Boolean, Y/N
Example of use
Y, N
Guidance on use
This is a clarifying field for Person Membership: Date first cited.
Where the content of the source has indicated the exact date that a relationship between a person and an organization began we will enter Y . In all other cases we will enter a value of N to indicate that the date is not a start date, but the date of first citation.
Person Membership: Context Start Date
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person Membership: Date last cited
Description
The latest date a source evidences a relationship between a person and an organization, either through direct reference in the source or by the date of its publication.
Type of field
Date (YYYY-MM-DD), fuzzy
Example of use
2012,2012-11, 2012-11-23
Guidance on use
Along with the fields Person Membership: Date first cited, Person Membership: Start date? and Person Membership: Open-ended? the field Person Memberships: Date last cited provides data about the time period over which we can evidence a person's relationships to an organization
The Person Membership: Date last cited field contains a date that is either:
The latest date found in the content of a source that specifically references the relationship between a person and an organization; or,
The latest date of publication of sources that makes reference to the relationship between a person and an organization.
For example, if three sources published on 1 January 2012, 1 February 2012 and 1 March 2012 all refer to this person as a commander, we will use 1 March 2012 as the value in
Person Membership: Date last cited. If the source published on 1 March 2012 refers to this person as a commander on the date of 14 February 2011, we will use 14 February 2011 as the value inPerson Membership: Date last cited.
The values for Person: Title, Person: Role and Person: Rank held by a person are assumed to continue until a source indicates a change in any of those values. If the person's role, title or rank changes a new entry will need to be created to document that change. This new entry will have updated values for Person Membership: Date last cited and related date fields.
In keeping with all date fields we include in this dataset, where our research can only find a year or a year and a month, this can be included Person Membership: Date last cited .
This field is clarified by the field Person Membership: Open-ended? which indicates whether the date included here is the actual date on which the relationship between a person and an organization ended.
Person Membership: End date?
Description
This field indicates whether the value in Person Membership: Date last cited is the actual end date on which the person ceased to be a member of this organization or if it is only the date last cited for that relationship.
Type of field
Single choice, (Y, N)
Example of use
Y,N
Guidance on use
This is a clarifying field for Person Membership: Date last cited. One of the below values should be chosen:
Yindicates that the content of the source is the exact date that a relationship between a person and an organization ended.Nindicates that the date is not an exact end date, but the date of last citation.
Person Membership: Context End Date
Description
The gender of the person.
Type of field
Text, controlled vocabulary
Example of use
Female , Male
Guidance on use
TO DO
Person: Notes
Description
Analysis, commentary and notes about the person that do not fit into the data structure.
Type of field
Text and numbers
Example of use
Trained in logisitics at Fort Lackland, Texas and the air force base of Wright Patterson, Ohio.
Guidance on use
We use this field to record information about the organization that is likely to provide useful context, additional information that does not fit into the data structure, and notes about how decisions were made about which data to include. Any sources used should be included inside the field.
Last updated