COUNTER Update

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COUNTER Update

• February 2006

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COUNTER Goals

• 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

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COUNTERCodes of Practice

• Definitions of terms used
• Specifications for Usage Reports
• Data processing guidelines
• Auditing
• Compliance
• Maintenance and development of the Code of
  Practice
• Governance of COUNTER

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Journals and databases

• Release 1
• Code of Practice launched in January 2003
• 60 of Science Citation Index articles now
  covered
• A widely adopted standard by publishers and
  librarians
• Librarians use in collection development
  decisions
• Publishers use in marketing to prove value
• Now being used to develop other metrics and
  monitor trends

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JISC-Sponsored survey using JR1

• 17 UK Libraries 4 STM Publishers for 2003 and
  2004
• Growth in article downloads
• Publisher A 12- 208
• Publisher B 12- 59
• Publisher C 23- 154
• Publisher D 22- 81
• Cost per 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

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Journals and databases

• Release 2 (Published April 2005 Effective
  January 2006)
• Examples of the required usage reports in Excel
  and CSV formats, along with detailed display
  rules for each report to facilitate compliance.
• XML DTDs for each report (optional)
• Journal Report 1 modified to include new columns
  that report pdf and html requests separately
• Specifications for usage reports to be provided
  at the consortium level (Journal Report 1 and
  Database Report 1)
• Protocols to be used for recording and reporting
  usage when an intermediary aggregator or gateway
  is involved

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Books and Reference Works

• Draft CoP published February 2005
• Covers online books, encyclopaedias, reference
  works
• Developed by a task force of publishers and
  librarians with expertise in online books
• Comments on draft have been accepted through
  December 2005
• Focus Group held at Charleston Conference on 3
  November
• Final version will be published in early 2006

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Draft 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
• Total searches and sessions by month and title
• Book Report 5
• Total searches and sessions by month and service

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Draft Code of Practice for books

• Unit of access may include
• Entire book
• Chapter, entry (Section)
• Page
• Paragraph
• Access depends on interface and organization of
  content
• Entire book may be one PDF
• Each chapter may have own PDF
• Reference works may be organized by topic or
  section

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Audit

• Required within 18 months of compliance annually
  thereafter
• Independent auditor
• Online audit
• Audit will check each report for
• Layout (correct rows, columns, headings)
• Format (CSV or Excel)
• Delivery (E-mail alert, access on
  password-controlled website)
• Accuracy (Tolerance is -8 to 2)

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Looking ahead other important metrics

• Link activity
• Where users come from and go to
• Target and type of target
• Year of publication
• Use and value of backfiles
• Type of material
• Journal article, book, chapter, video,
  soundtrack
• Article level data?
• Volume versus value applications of the data

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Live issues

• Interface effects on usage statistics
• Various scenarios
• Data filter solutions
• Reporting digital archive usage
• Librarian demand
• Options include year of publication, separate
  reports
• Institutional repositories
• Interoperable repository statistics
• Improving the harvesting of online usage
  statistics
• Toolkits
• NISO initiative

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Institutional repositories

• Growth in IR content
• Need for credible IR usage statistics
• Authors, IR administrators, research funders
• Download IR usage statistics already being
  collected
• No standards in place
• COUNTER standards
• Already cover open access journals
• No mechanism yet for automatically combining
  usage data from different sources
• Covers journals, databases and books
• Other content categories?

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COUNTER Membership

• Member Categories and Annual Fees (2006)
• Publishers/intermediaries 775
• Library Consortia 515
• Libraries 387
• Industry organization 387
• Library affiliate 156 (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

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For more information.

• http//www.projectcounter.org
• Thank you!
• Peter Shepherd (Project Director)
• pshepherd_at_projectCounter.org