Database with cause-effect pairs

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This is a growing database with different data for testing causal detection algorithms. The goal here is to distinguish between cause and effect. We searched for data sets with known ground truth. However, we do not guarantee that all provided ground truths are correct. The datafiles are .txt-files and contain two variables, one is the cause and the other the effect. For every example there exists a description file where you can find the ground truth and how the data was derived.

Note that not always the first column is the cause and the second the effect. This is indicated in a meta-data file. Please look at README for further explanations. We also suggest a weighting factor for some pairs which are very similar if you want to calculate the overall performance.

To get all data files at once download all data as a zip file.

When you use this data set in a publication, please cite the following paper (which also contains much more detailed information regarding this data set in the supplement):

J. M. Mooij, J. Peters, D. Janzing, J. Zscheischler, B. Schoelkopf:
"Distinguishing cause from effect using observational data: methods and benchmarks",
Journal of Machine Learning Research 17(32):1-102, 2016

Note: pair0001 - pair0041 were taken from the UCI Machine Learning Repository, so if you use these data sets please refer to their webpage. Here you will find their citation policy.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions for additional data sets, please contact Dominik Janzing.


Data Description Scatter plot (PDF)
pair0001.txt pair0001_des.txt pair0001.pdf
pair0002.txt pair0002_des.txt pair0002.pdf
pair0003.txt pair0003_des.txt pair0003.pdf
pair0004.txt pair0004_des.txt pair0004.pdf
pair0005.txt pair0005_des.txt pair0005.pdf
pair0006.txt pair0006_des.txt pair0006.pdf
pair0007.txt pair0007_des.txt pair0007.pdf
pair0008.txt pair0008_des.txt pair0008.pdf
pair0009.txt pair0009_des.txt pair0009.pdf
pair0010.txt pair0010_des.txt pair0010.pdf
pair0011.txt pair0011_des.txt pair0011.pdf
pair0012.txt pair0012_des.txt pair0012.pdf
pair0013.txt pair0013_des.txt pair0013.pdf
pair0014.txt pair0014_des.txt pair0014.pdf
pair0015.txt pair0015_des.txt pair0015.pdf
pair0016.txt pair0016_des.txt pair0016.pdf
pair0017.txt pair0017_des.txt pair0017.pdf
pair0018.txt pair0018_des.txt pair0018.pdf
pair0019.txt pair0019_des.txt pair0019.pdf
pair0020.txt pair0020_des.txt pair0020.pdf
pair0021.txt pair0021_des.txt pair0021.pdf
pair0022.txt pair0022_des.txt pair0022.pdf
pair0023.txt pair0023_des.txt pair0023.pdf
pair0024.txt pair0024_des.txt pair0024.pdf
pair0025.txt pair0025_des.txt pair0025.pdf
pair0026.txt pair0026_des.txt pair0026.pdf
pair0027.txt pair0027_des.txt pair0027.pdf
pair0028.txt pair0028_des.txt pair0028.pdf
pair0029.txt pair0029_des.txt pair0029.pdf
pair0030.txt pair0030_des.txt pair0030.pdf
pair0031.txt pair0031_des.txt pair0031.pdf
pair0032.txt pair0032_des.txt pair0032.pdf
pair0033.txt pair0033_des.txt pair0033.pdf
pair0034.txt pair0034_des.txt pair0034.pdf
pair0035.txt pair0035_des.txt pair0035.pdf
pair0036.txt pair0036_des.txt pair0036.pdf
pair0037.txt pair0037_des.txt pair0037.pdf
pair0038.txt pair0038_des.txt pair0038.pdf
pair0039.txt pair0039_des.txt pair0039.pdf
pair0040.txt pair0040_des.txt pair0040.pdf
pair0041.txt pair0041_des.txt pair0041.pdf
pair0042.txt pair0042_des.txt pair0042.pdf
pair0043.txt pair0043_des.txt pair0043.pdf
pair0044.txt pair0044_des.txt pair0044.pdf
pair0045.txt pair0045_des.txt pair0045.pdf
pair0046.txt pair0046_des.txt pair0046.pdf
pair0047.txt pair0047_des.txt pair0047.pdf
pair0048.txt pair0048_des.txt pair0048.pdf
pair0049.txt pair0049_des.txt pair0049.pdf
pair0050.txt pair0050_des.txt pair0050.pdf
pair0051.txt pair0051_des.txt pair0051.pdf
pair0052.txt pair0052_des.txt pair0052.pdf
pair0053.txt pair0053_des.txt pair0053.pdf
pair0054.txt pair0054_des.txt pair0054.pdf
pair0055.txt pair0055_des.txt pair0055.pdf
pair0056.txt pair0056_des.txt pair0056.pdf
pair0057.txt pair0057_des.txt pair0057.pdf
pair0058.txt pair0058_des.txt pair0058.pdf
pair0059.txt pair0059_des.txt pair0059.pdf
pair0060.txt pair0060_des.txt pair0060.pdf
pair0061.txt pair0061_des.txt pair0061.pdf
pair0062.txt pair0062_des.txt pair0062.pdf
pair0063.txt pair0063_des.txt pair0063.pdf
pair0064.txt pair0064_des.txt pair0064.pdf
pair0065.txt pair0065_des.txt pair0065.pdf
pair0066.txt pair0066_des.txt pair0066.pdf
pair0067.txt pair0067_des.txt pair0067.pdf
pair0068.txt pair0068_des.txt pair0068.pdf
pair0069.txt pair0069_des.txt pair0069.pdf
pair0070.txt pair0070_des.txt pair0070.pdf
pair0071.txt pair0071_des.txt pair0071.pdf
pair0072.txt pair0072_des.txt pair0072.pdf
pair0073.txt pair0073_des.txt pair0073.pdf
pair0074.txt pair0074_des.txt pair0074.pdf
pair0075.txt pair0075_des.txt pair0075.pdf
pair0076.txt pair0076_des.txt pair0076.pdf
pair0077.txt pair0077_des.txt pair0077.pdf
pair0078.txt pair0078_des.txt pair0078.pdf
pair0079.txt pair0079_des.txt pair0079.pdf
pair0080.txt pair0080_des.txt pair0080.pdf
pair0081.txt pair0081_des.txt pair0081.pdf
pair0082.txt pair0082_des.txt pair0082.pdf
pair0083.txt pair0083_des.txt pair0083.pdf
pair0084.txt pair0084_des.txt pair0084.pdf
pair0085.txt pair0085_des.txt pair0085.pdf
pair0086.txt pair0086_des.txt pair0086.pdf
pair0087.txt pair0087_des.txt pair0087.pdf
pair0088.txt pair0088_des.txt pair0088.pdf
pair0089.txt pair0089_des.txt pair0089.pdf
pair0090.txt pair0090_des.txt pair0090.pdf
pair0091.txt pair0091_des.txt pair0091.pdf
pair0092.txt pair0092_des.txt pair0092.pdf
pair0093.txt pair0093_des.txt pair0093.pdf
pair0094.txt pair0094_des.txt pair0094.pdf
pair0095.txt pair0095_des.txt pair0095.pdf
pair0096.txt pair0096_des.txt pair0096.pdf
pair0097.txt pair0097_des.txt pair0097.pdf
pair0098.txt pair0098_des.txt pair0098.pdf
pair0099.txt pair0099_des.txt pair0099.pdf
pair0100.txt pair0100_des.txt pair0100.pdf
pair0101.txt pair0101_des.txt pair0101.pdf
pair0102.txt pair0102_des.txt pair0102.pdf
pair0103.txt pair0103_des.txt pair0103.pdf
pair0104.txt pair0104_des.txt pair0104.pdf
pair0105.txt pair0105_des.txt pair0105.pdf
pair0106.txt pair0106_des.txt pair0106.pdf
pair0107.txt pair0107_des.txt pair0107.pdf
pair0108.txt pair0108_des.txt pair0108.pdf

Older versions

To enable comparison of results, from time to time we release a version of this database. Below is a list of all past releases. The differences between releases are documented in the CHANGELOG file.