Media kit
Everything needed to write about the atlas without having to ask, including permission to reproduce any of it.
Permissions, in one paragraph
You may reproduce anything on this site — figures, charts, tables, coordinates, quotations from the analysis — in any publication, commercial or otherwise, with attribution to The Political Atlas and a link where the format allows one. No permission request is required and none will be refused. The dataset is free to redistribute and build upon on the same terms.
Boilerplate
The Political Atlas is a free, open research instrument that locates political organisations on six independent axes rather than a single left-to-right line. It covers 319 organisations from 508 BCE to the present, carries 2075 pieces of citable evidence behind 1914 scored cells, and publishes an audit that reports findings against itself. thepoliticalatlas.com
Spokesperson
Kenneth McGrath, founder. Available for interview, background briefing and on-record comment on political classification, comparative party positioning, and the limits of political labelling. Contact commissions@thepoliticalatlas.com.
Free for journalists
A claim check, in 48 hours
Name any political comparison in circulation and it will be tested and returned inside two days, free, with the evidence. In exchange, attribution if it informs what you publish. Terms.
Custom data queries
Need the coordinates for a set of parties, or the distance between two things not already published? Ask. No charge, usually same day.
Embeddable comparisons
One line of HTML renders any comparison with the six-axis breakdown and a link back. Free, including commercially. Documentation.
The whole dataset
JSON, free, no registration. Every score, every piece of evidence, every revision. Download.
Facts that are safe to state
| Organisations coded | 319 |
| Period covered | 508 BCE to the present |
| Scored cells | 1914, every one with a rationale and at least one citable artefact |
| Pieces of evidence | 2075 |
| Countries represented | 55 with two or more entries |
| Scores revised on evidence | 30, each with the reason recorded publicly |
| Cost to use | Free. No paywall, no registration, no advertising, no third-party tracking |
What we ask you not to write
Two things would be inaccurate:
- That the atlas is objective, or scientific, or settles anything. It is a coding scheme with published evidence and a published method. Its own pages say it is not objective and that no coding scheme is.
- That it is peer reviewed, or that it is the output of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem. It is a synthesis. Where an authoritative figure is needed, those are the datasets to cite.
The atlas has one coder and therefore cannot report inter-coder reliability, which is the standard evidence that a coding scheme works in other hands. That is stated on the method page and is fair to report as its principal limitation.