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COUNTER Overview

This overview provides information on COUNTER, its achievements and current status, and the importance of online usage statistics for publishers and librarians. It also explains the different codes of practice and auditing requirements.

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COUNTER Overview

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  1. COUNTER Overview Peter Shepherd Director COUNTER September 2007

  2. Background • Understanding usage • Different approaches • Role of usage statistics • Usage statistics • Should enlighten rather than obscure • Should be practical • Should be reliable • Are only part of the story • Should be used in context • COUNTER • Achievements • Current status • Future challenges

  3. So how are we getting there? • ICOLC Guidelines for statistical measurement of usage of web-based information resources • National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) Electronic access and use-related measures • NISO – Z39.7 (Library Statistics) • ISO – 2789 (library statistics) and 11563 (library performance measures) • MESUR – investigate metrics derived from the network-based usage of scholarly information • COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources)

  4. Why COUNTER? • Goal: credible, compatible, consistent publisher/vendor-generated statistics for the global information community • Libraries and consortia need online usage statistics • To assess the value of different online products/services • To support collection development • To plan infrastructure • Publishers need online usage statistics • To experiment with new pricing models • To assess the relative importance of the different channels by which information reaches the market • To provide editorial support • To plan infrastructure

  5. COUNTERCodes of Practice • Definitions of terms used • Specifications for Usage Reports • What they should include • What they should look like • How and when they should be delivered • Data processing guidelines • Auditing • Compliance • Maintenance and development of the Code of Practice • Governance of COUNTER

  6. COUNTER: current Codes of Practice 1) Journals and databases • Release 1 Code of Practice launched January 2003 • Release 2 published April 2005 replacing Release 1 in January 2006 • Now a widely adopted standard by publishers and librarians • 60+ vendors now compliant • 10000+ journals now covered • Librarians use it in collection development decisions • Publishers use it in marketing to prove ‘value’ 2) Books and reference works • Release 1 Code of Practice launched March 2006 • 6 vendors now compliant • Relevant usage metrics less clear than for journals • Different issues than for journals • Direct comparisons between books less relevant • Understanding how different categories of book are used is more relevant

  7. Journal and Database Code of Practice Usage Reports • Journal Report 1 • Full text article requests by month and journal • Journal Report 2 • Turnaways by month and journal • Database Report 1 • Total searches and sessions by month and database • Database Report 2 • Turnaways by month and database • Database Report 3 • Searches and sessions by month and service

  8. Code of Practice for books • Book Report 1 • Number of successful requests by month and title • Book Report 2 • Number of successful section requests by month and title • Book Report 3 • Turnaways by month and title • Book Report 4 • Turnaways by month and service • Book Report 5 • Total searches and sessions by month and title • Book Report 6 • Total searches and sessions by month and service

  9. Journal Report 1Full text article requests by journal Html and PDF totals reported separately

  10. COUNTER Audit • Independent audit required within 18 months of compliance, and annually thereafter • Audit is online, using scripts provided in the Code of Practice • Auditor can be: • Any Chartered Accountant • Another COUNTER-approved auditor • ABCE is the first COUNTER-approved auditor • Industry-owned • Not-for-profit • Independent and impartial • Part of ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) • Providing website traffic audits for over 150 companies and certifying over 1400 domains • Have successfully completed test audits on COUNTER usage reports

  11. ABCE Audit fees

  12. COUNTER: deriving metrics from Journal Report 1 • Local metrics • For libraries and library consortia • At journal, collection and publisher level • To compare the cost-effectiveness of journal subscriptions • To assess the value of Big Deals • Global metrics • For authors, funding agencies, libraries and publishers • At journal, collection and publisher level • To compare quality and value

  13. COUNTER: ‘local’ metrics • JISC (UK Joint Information Systems Committee) • Funded by UK higher education funding councils • Supports higher education in the use of information and communications technologies • Access to information and communication resources • Advice on creation and preservation of digital archives • Implications of using ICT • Network services and support • Research to develop innovative solutions • National overview of online journal usage • Develop a reliable, widely applicable methodology • Use COUNTER Journal Report 1 ‘article full-text requests’

  14. Local metrics: an example • COUNTER data was analysed in relation to: • usage range • Price band • Subject category • Metrics derived from this analysis • Trend in number of full-text article downloads • Full text article requests per title • Full text article requests per publisher package • Full text article requests per FTE user • Most requested titles • Usage of subscribed vs.. unsubscribed titles • Cost per full-text article downloads • Cost per FTE user • Summary report available at: www.ebase.uce.ac.uk/projects/NESLi2.htm

  15. Local metrics: an example • Growth in full-text article downloads • Publisher A: 12%- 208% • Publisher B: 12%- 59% • Publisher C: 23%- 154% • Publisher D: 22%- 81% • Cost per full-text article download • Publisher A: £0.97- £5.26 • Publisher B: £0.70 - £2.91 • Publisher C: £0.80 - £3.29 • Publisher D: £0.45 - £2.26

  16. COUNTER: ‘global’ metrics • Impact Factor • Well-established, easily understood and accepted • Endorsed by funding agencies and researchers • Does not cover all fields of scholarship • Reflects value of journals to researchers • Over-emphasis on IF distorts the behaviour of authors • Over-used, mis-used and over-interpreted • Usage Factor • Usage-based alternative perspective • Would cover all online journals • Would reflect value of journals to all categories of user • Would be easy to understood

  17. Global metrics: UKSG Project • Assess the feasibility of developing and implementing journal Usage Factors • Level of support from author, librarian and publisher communities • Data from which UF would be derived • COUNTER Journal Report 1? • Article numbers • Process for consolidation, calculation and reporting of UFs • Factors in the calculation • Level of reporting • Total usage • Articles • Report submitted in May 2007

  18. UKSG Project: feedback • Are the COUNTER usage statistics sufficiently robust? • Frustration at lack of comparable, quantitative data on journals • Should items covered by restricted to articles? • Many journals still have significant usage in print • Diversity of views on the factors in the calculation • Specified usage period • Specified publication period • Usage data is more susceptible to manipulation • Will the journal be a meaningful concept in the future? • Two measures with different limitations are better than one, and UF will be derived from a set of credible, understandable data • Usage data will be used as a measure of value, whether publishers like it or not

  19. Current issues • Interface effects on usage statistics • E.g. downloading HTML and PDF of the same article in one session • COUNTER has tested data filter solutions, but what does the duplicate downloading signify? • Reporting separately purchasable digital archive usage • Currently all usage for a journal is usually reported together • Separately purchasable archives mean we need separate reports for archival content, or a year of publication breakdown of usage • Usage in Institutional Repositories • Growth in Institutional Repository (IR) content • Need for credible IR usage statistics • IR usage statistics already being collected, but no standards • SUSHI • Improving consortial usage reports • Current usage reports inadequate • New reports in XML format

  20. Reporting separately purchasable digital archive usage • Increasingly requested by librarians • Interim solution • Journal Report 1a:Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests from an Archive by Month and Journal • Optional additional usage report • Longer-term solution • Journals Report 1a? • Include year-of-publication data in JR1?

  21. SUSHI • Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) • No mechanism yet for automatically retrieving, combining, and storing COUNTER usage data from different sources • NISO-sponsored XML-based SUSHI aims to provide a means to do just this, via a standard model for machine to machine automation of statistics harvesting. • COUNTER and NISO have signed an agreement to work together on the development of SUSHI. More details of SUSHI can be found at:- http://www.niso.org/committees/SUSHI/SUSHI_comm.html

  22. Future challenges • Improving/extending the Codes of Practice • Reliability ( audit, federated searches, prefetching) • Usability (number of compliant vendors, XML format, additional usage reports) • Additional data (year of publication, article level reports) • Categories of content (Institutional Repository content) • Deriving metrics from the Codes of Practice • Journals (cost per use, Usage Factor) • Databases? • Books?

  23. Next steps….. • Release 3 of Code of Practice for Journals/Databases • Features: prioritisation on basis of demand and practicality • Process: consultation via focus groups,etc; publication of draft CoP • Release 2 of Code of Practice for Books • Review R1 in practice • Other categories of content ( eg Institutional Repositories) • Metrics derived from the COUNTER usage statistics • Cost per use • Usage Factor

  24. COUNTER Membership • Member Categories and Annual Fees (2007) • Publishers/intermediaries: £530 • Library Consortia: £355 • Libraries: £265 • Industry organization: £265 • Library affiliate: £106 (non-voting member) • Benefits of full membership • Owner of COUNTER with voting rights at annual general meeting, etc. • Regular bulletins on progress • Opportunity to receive advice on implementation

  25. http://www.projectcounter.org Apply for COUNTER membership

  26. For more information………. http://www.projectcounter.org Thank you! Peter Shepherd, COUNTER pshepherd@projectcounter.org

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