How to cite NationsHelm
NationsHelm compiles and scores 203 nations and 1272world leaders from citable public sources. You're welcome to cite it in research, journalism, and analysis — here's how to do it correctly, with attribution that stays valid over time.
The one rule
Every indicator on NationsHelm traces back to a citable primary source — the World Bank, IMF, ILO, Transparency International, WIPO, UNESCO, the World Justice Project, V-Dem, GDELT, UCDP, the Fragile States Index, UN DESA, and others. For academic use, cite the underlying source directly for the raw number, and cite NationsHelm as the platform that compiled, scored, and dated it. Each value on the site is labeled live, sourced, derived, or authored, so provenance is always explicit. Derived scores are computed deterministically from those sources; nothing is a synthetic placeholder.
Citing the platform
For a general reference to NationsHelm as a data source. Substitute your own access date.
- APA
NationsHelm. (2026). NationsHelm: Geopolitical intelligence platform [Data set]. Retrieved July 15, 2026, from https://nationshelm.com- MLA
NationsHelm. NationsHelm: Geopolitical Intelligence Platform, 2026, nationshelm.com. Accessed July 15, 2026.- Chicago
NationsHelm. "NationsHelm: Geopolitical Intelligence Platform." Accessed July 15, 2026. https://nationshelm.com.- BibTeX
@misc{nationshelm, title = {{NationsHelm}: Geopolitical Intelligence Platform}, author = {{NationsHelm}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {\url{https://nationshelm.com}}, note = {Accessed July 15, 2026} }
Citing a specific page
For a single nation or leader scorecard. The examples use Brazil's nation page — swap in the page title and URL you're citing.
- APA
NationsHelm. (2026). Brazil — nation scorecard. Retrieved July 15, 2026, from https://nationshelm.com/nations/brazil- MLA
"Brazil — Nation Scorecard." NationsHelm, 2026, nationshelm.com/nations/brazil. Accessed July 15, 2026.- Chicago
NationsHelm. "Brazil — Nation Scorecard." Accessed July 15, 2026. https://nationshelm.com/nations/brazil.- BibTeX
@misc{nationshelm_brazil, title = {Brazil --- Nation Scorecard}, author = {{NationsHelm}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {\url{https://nationshelm.com/nations/brazil}}, note = {Accessed July 15, 2026} }
Stable URLs
A citation is only as good as the link behind it. NationsHelm URLs are designed to stay valid:
- Nations live at a permanent slug —
/nations/<country>. The slug never changes as the data behind it is refreshed. - Leaders are addressed by person and term —
/leaders/<person>/<term>. Because the URL names the individual and their specific mandate, a citation always resolves to the same leader and tenure — it will never silently point at whoever holds the office next.
Because NationsHelm is a living dataset, always record the access date (as the examples above do). Every indicator is dated on the page itself, so you can cite the exact vintage of a number.
Need the scoring model and full source list? See the methodology. Building an AI assistant or reference tool? A machine-readable map of the site lives at /llms.txt. Spot an error in a cited figure? Submit a correction.