COUNTER Update

Peter Shepherd

COUNTER

May 2012

COUNTER- three new developments

Release 4 of the Code of Practice Release 4 definitive version now published

Usage Factor a new usage based measure of journal impact detailed statistical analysis completed Draft Code of Practice for journal Usage Factor now

available for comment PIRUS – Publisher and Institutional Repository Usage

Statistics recording and reporting usage at the individual article level Final project report now available; provides a promising

basis for implementation technical issues largely resolved; organizational and

business model proposed but not yet finalised Growing publisher interest in implementation

COUNTER Release 4 - objectives

A single, unified Code covering all e-resources, including journals, databases, books, reference works, multimedia content, etc.

Improve the database reports Improve the reporting of archive usage Enable the reporting of mobile usage separately Expand the categories of ‘Access Denied’ covered Improve the application of XML and SUSHI in the

design of the usage reports Collect metadata that facilitates the linking of usage

statistics to other datasets, such as subscription information

Release 4: main features

A single, integrated Code of Practice covering journals, databases, books, reference works and multimedia content

An expanded list of Definitions, including terms such as ‘Gold Open Access’, ‘Multimedia Full Content Unit’, ‘Record View’, ‘Result Click’, as well as different categories of ‘Access Denied’, etc. that are used for the first time in Release 4

Improved database reports that include reporting of Result Clicks and Record Views, in addition to Searches (Sessions removed)

Release 4: main features

Enhancements of the SUSHI (Standardised Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) protocol designed to facilitate its implementation by vendors and its use by librarians

A requirement that Institutional Identifiers, Journal DOI and Book DOI be included in the usage reports, to facilitate not only the management of usage data, but also the linking of usage data to other data relevant to collections of online content.

A requirement that usage of Gold Open Access articles within journals be reported separately in a new report: Journal Report 1 GOA: Number of Successful Gold Open Access Full-text Article Requests by Month and Journal.

A requirement that Journal Report 5 must be provided

Release 4: main features

Modified Database Reports, in which the previous requirement to report Session counts has been dropped, and new requirements, to report Record Views and Result Clicks, have been added. (Database Report 3 has also been renamed Platform Report 1).A new report, Multimedia Report 1, which covers the usage of non-textual multimedia resources, such as audio, video and images, by reporting the number of successful requests for multimedia full content unitsNew optional reports covering usage on mobile devicesA description of the relative advantages of logfiles and page tags as the basis for counting online usage Flexibility in the usage reporting period that allows customers to specify a date range for their usage reports

Release 4: Journal Report 5

Release 4: Database Report 1

Release 4: Multimedia Report 1

Release 4: recording and reporting usage on mobile devices

The following optional additional reports enable usage on mobile devices to be reported separately: 

Journal Report 3 Mobile: Number of Successful Item Requests by Month, Journal and Page Type for usage on a Mobile Device  

Title Report 1 Mobile: Number of Successful Requests for Journal Full-text Articles and Book Sections by Month and Title ( formatted for normal browsers/delivered to mobile devices AND formatted for mobile devices/delivered to mobile devices)  

Title Report 3 Mobile: Number of Successful Requests by Month, Title and Page Type (formatted for normal browsers/delivered to mobile devices AND formatted for mobile devices/delivered to mobile devices)

 

COUNTER will recognize as usage on a mobile device, which may be reported in the above reports, any usage that meets one of the following criteria:  

useragents that have the word ‘mobile’ in the string useragents that are included in the WURFL list. WURFL is the Wireless Universal

Resource FiLe, a database containing the profile of mobile devices; this database may be found at: http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/

usage via a proprietary mobile App provided by the publisher/content provider

Release 4: timetable for implementation

Deadline date for implementation of Release 4:

31 December 2013

-after this date only vendors compliant with Release 4 will be COUNTER compliant

Between now and 31 December 2013, Release 4 and the existing Releases of the Codes of Practice are valid

Full details of Release 4 will be found on the COUNTER website at:

http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html

COUNTER Code of Practice-Release 4

Usage Factor: background

Usage Factor: providing a new perspective

UF is a complementary measure that will compensate for the weaknesses of Impact Factors in several important ways:UFs will be available for a much larger number of journalscoverage of all fields of scholarship that have online journalsimpact of practitioner-oriented journals is better reflected in usageusage is recorded and reported immediately upon publication of an articleavailability of UF will reduce the current over-emphasis of IFsauthors would welcome a usage-based measure for journals

Usage Factor: who will benefit?

Four major groups will benefit from the introduction of Usage Factors:

Authors, especially those in practitioner-oriented fields, where citation-based measures understate the impact of journals, as well as those in areas outside the core STM fields of pure research, where coverage of journals by citation-based measures is weak.

Publishers, especially those with large numbers of journals outside of the core STM research areas, where there is no reliable, universal measure of journal impact, because citation-based measures are either inadequate or non-existent for these fields

Librarians, when deciding on new journal acquisitions, have no reliable, global measures of journal impact for fields outside the core STM research fields. They would use usage-based measures to help them prioritise journals to be added to their collections.

Research Funding Agencies, who are seeking a wider range of credible, consistent quantitative measures of the value and impact of the outputs of the research that they fund.

Usage Factor Project- aims and objectives

The overall aim of this project was to explore how online journal usage statistics might form the basis of a new measure of journal impact and quality, the Usage Factor for journals.

Specific objectives were to answer the following questions:Will Usage Factor be a statistically meaningful measure?Will Usage Factor be accepted by researchers, publishers, librarians and research institutions?Will Usage Factor be statistically credible and robust?Is there an organizational and economic model for its implementation that would cost-effective and be acceptable to the major stakeholder groups.

The project is being carried out in three Stages:Stage 1 ( 2007-2008): market researchStage 2 (2009-2011): modelling and analysisStage 3 (2012-2013): further tests based on draft Code of Practice

Usage Factor Project- next steps

Stage 3 ObjectivesPublication of a draft Code of Practice for the Journal Usage FactorFurther testing of the recommended methodology for calculating Journal Usage Factor Investigation of an appropriate, resilient subject taxonomy for the classification of journalsExploration of the options for an infrastructure to support the sustainable implementation of JUFInvestigate the feasibility of applying the Usage Factor concept to

other categories of publication

Usage Factor Project- draft Code of Practice

The Code of Practice will be consistent with COUNTER and will provide: A list of Definitions and other terms that are relevant to Usage Factor A methodology for the calculation of Usage Factor as a median value, including

specifications for the metadata to be recorded, the content types and article versions whose usage may be counted, as well as the Publication Period and Usage Period to be used.

Specifications for the reporting of the Usage Factor Data processing rules to ensure that Usage Factors are credible, consistent and

compatible, including protocols for identifying and dealing with attempts to game the Usage Factor

Specifications for the independent auditing of Usage Factors A description of the role of the Central Registry for Usage Factors in the

consolidation of usage data and in the publication of Usage Factors

The draft Code of Practice for Usage Factors is now available for comment on the Usage Factor page of the COUNTER website at: http://www.projectcounter.org/usage_factor.html

 

PIRUS: why now?

Increasing interest in article-level usage

More journal articles hosted by Institutional and other Repositories Authors and funding agencies are increasingly interested in a

reliable, global overview of usage of individual articles Online usage becoming an alternative, accepted measure of

article and journal value Knowledge Exchange report recommends developing

standards for usage reporting at the individual article level Usage-based metrics being considered as a tool for use in the

UK Research Excellence Framework and elsewhere.

PIRUS: why now?

Article-level usage metrics now more practical

Implementation by COUNTER of XML-based usage reports makes more granular reporting of usage a practical proposition

Implementation by COUNTER of the SUSHI protocol facilitates the automated consolidation of usage data from different sources.

PIRUS: mission and project aims

MissionTo develop a global standard to enable the recording, reporting and

consolidation of online usage statistics for individual journal articles hosted by Institutional Repositories, Publishers and other entities

Project aims Develop COUNTER-compliant usage reports at the individual

article level

Create guidelines which, if implemented, would enable any entity that hosts online journal articles to produce these reports

Propose ways in which these reports might be consolidated at a global level in a standard way.

Reliable usage data will be available for journal articles, wherever they are held

Improved service to authors: authors are increasingly interested in knowing the level of usage of their articles (PLoS has been providing this information since 2009)

A PIRUS Code of Practice, based on existing COUNTER protocols, will provide publishers with a common, practical standard for delivering article-level usage data to their authors

The PIRUS standard can, in principle, be extended to cover other categories of content

PIRUS: benefits

Technical: a workable technical model for the collection, processing and consolidation of individual article usage statistics has been developed.

Organizational: an organizational model for a Central Clearing House that would be responsible for the collection, processing and consolidation of usage statistics has been proposed.

Economic: the costs for repositories and publishers of generating the required usage reports, as well as the costs of any central clearing house/houses have been calculated and a model for recovering these costs has been proposed .

PIRUS: project outcomes

PIRUS: next steps

Development of a draft PIRUS Code of Practice, based on the outcomes of the PIRUS project, for the recording and reporting of usage at the individual article level

Further information on PIRUS: http://www.projectcounter.org/News/Pirus2_oct2011.pdf