This is the last module in the reading-the-data track, and it is here because everything the earlier modules explained — units, statuses, ownership, the nature of a tracker — matters most at the exact moment someone decides to cite a number from this site somewhere else.
Cite the source, not just the aggregator
Every figure describing a terminal, pipeline or carrier on this site ultimately comes from Global Energy Monitor’s Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker, and the correct citation for the underlying data names that source directly: “Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker, Global Energy Monitor,” together with the release the attribution line on the page states. This is not a formality — it is accurate attribution, since the fact being cited was established by GEM’s compilation work, not by this site.
This site’s own contribution is different in kind: grouping units into projects, computing totals by status, matching pipelines to nearby terminals within a stated distance, generating a written summary from structured fields, and maintaining the change log that compares releases over time. Where you are relying on one of those — a computed total, a proximity match, a summary sentence — attributing this site alongside the underlying source is the accurate description of where that particular piece of information came from.
What is licensed, and how
The underlying GEM data is published under CC BY 4.0, meaning it can be reused freely with attribution to Global Energy Monitor. That licence covers the facts GEM compiled — capacities, statuses, ownership stakes, locations. Original written material on this site, including the explainers in this course and the summaries generated from structured fields, is this site’s own content, distinct from the licensed data it describes.
The checklist, gathered from the rest of this track
Before citing a specific figure elsewhere, this track has already set out what to check, and gathering it in one place is the point of this final module.
The release. Every page states the GEM release the shown data came from. A figure is only as current as that date, as what a tracker can and cannot tell you explains.
The status basis. Is the figure for operating capacity alone, or does it combine statuses that should never be added together?
The unit. Mtpa, bcm/y, or something else, and was a conversion applied?
Design or measured. A nameplate figure is a specification, not a report of what was actually produced.
Who is named, and in what role. Owner, operator and parent are different relationships, and a citation naming “the company behind” a project should say which one it means.
Why this site never fills a gap with an estimate
An empty GEM field renders as “Not reported” everywhere on this site, with nothing supplied in its place. This matters specifically for citation: it means every number you find here traces back to something GEM’s compilers actually stated, rather than to an inference this site made on your behalf. If a figure looks wrong or suspiciously precise, the honest next step is checking it against the current GEM release directly, since a discrepancy is either an issue in how this site processed the source or a revision GEM has made since — both worth knowing, and both resolvable by going back to the source rather than trusting either compilation blindly.
Closing the loop
This module ends the reading-the-data track, and its position at the end is deliberate: everything about units, statuses, ownership and the nature of a tracker exists to support this one practical act — using a figure from this site, or from GEM directly, in a way its source can actually support. A citation that names the release, states the basis, and gets the unit right is doing something more useful than a bare number, however precise that number looks.