GHDx Help

Finding Data

There are several ways to locate datasets in the GHDx. The search box in the upper left of every page in the GHDx allows you to search by individual terms or phrases. By default, the GHDx searches for closely related terms, so "annual" also finds "annually." In addition, you can use the following operators:

1. Use AND (all caps) to do pure AND matching (will yield fewer results).
2. Use OR (all caps) to mean or.
3. Use quotation marks around a phrase to find that exact phrase: for example, "vital statistics" only finds the entire phrase.
4. Use quotation marks around a phrase followed by ~ and then a number to do proximity searches.  It will look for the terms of the phrase within the number of characters.  So "vital statistics"~10 looks for the vital and statistics within 10 characters -- not the exact phrase.
5. Use - in front of a word to mean NOT.
6. Use * for wildcard searching.  By default, the GHDx searches for closely related terms, so "annual" also finds "annually".

You can also use the Browse feature, which conducts searches based on specific parameters such as data only for a particular country or from a particular series. You can use multiple parameters. The difference between browsing for Brazil and searching for it as a keyword is that the latter will look in all the available metadata for the term Brazil, not just the Geography Name field.

Downloading Data

As of February 24, the GHDx no longer requires users to register to download data. If you previously registered, we have deleted your user account information.

If you have any difficulty downloading files, due to large file size or any other reason, please let us know.  We would be happy to provide the files another way. Simply click the feedback link on the GHDx home page or send us an e-mail at data@healthmetricsandevaluation.org.

Subscribing to New Data

The GHDx allows you to subscribe to new and updated data via RSS.  You can also subscribe to keywords and geographical locations such as countries or regions.  You will see the standard RSS icon at the bottom of every page you can subscribe to.  There is also a link to the feed for new and updated data on the Data home page.

Understanding Dataset Records

GHDx titles and original or alternative titles

In the GHDx we use a standardized title as the primary title for many reasons.  First, all the titles we use are in English to prevent duplicates based on an English title and the title in the original language.  Second, it helps make it clear when different datasets are part of the same series. Third, it makes scanning lists of datasets easier.  The field "original title" may be an alternative title when a dataset goes by several names, or the title in another language.  If a dataset has more than two possible titles, we try to indicate other titles in the summary.

Geography type and name

The geography type generally indicates the extent of geographic coverage, while the name indicates the area covered.  For some data types, geography does not apply in the same way.  For instance, for annual reports, we indicate the country where the organization is located as the Geography Name.

Suggested citation and source information

We do our best to determine appropriate source information for the data.  We do not designate specific roles for contributors because that information is often unavailable or unclear, and in some cases, complete contributor and funder information is simply unavailable.  In cases where a publication date is not listed, it is missing because either the data may not be published (data are unavailable) or the date that the data were published is unavailable.

Our suggested citation is purposefully simple and straightforward. Many journals have their own format and requirements for citations, but we provide a suggested citation to encourage users to credit the production and publication of data. We also provide enough information in the record that other citation formats may be used.