Using COUNTER statistics: a
practical perspective
Simon Bevan, Cranfield University
Louise Jones, University of Leicester
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Workshop outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Aims of COUNTER
COUNTER reports
Role of pilot sites
Lessons learnt..
Discussion
Librarian Toolkit
Summary
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Cranfield & Leicester
• Cranfield
–
–
–
–
–
3 campuses; c3,500 students; 88% postgraduate;
Engineering, biosciences, management, manufacturing
Access to over 6000 e-journals
Use 12 COUNTER compliant vendors
Pilot site for E-measures study
• Leicester
– 19,500 registered students; 7,000 distance learning
– Sciences, humanities, law, medicine, social sciences,
engineering, management, education
– Access to over 7800 e-journals
– Use 18 COUNTER compliant vendors
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Aims of COUNTER
• It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that
the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent
way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they
buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know
how the information products they disseminate are being accessed.
An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed
international Code of Practice governing the recording and
exchange of online usage data. COUNTER has developed just such
a Code of Practice.
• COUNTER has been developed to provide a single, international,
extendible Code of Practice that allows the usage of online
information products and services to be measured in a credible,
consistent and compatible way using vendor-generated data.
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Vendor
JR1
JR2
JR3
JR4
Allen Press
Yes
No
No
Annual Reviews
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Atypon Systems
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
BioOne
Yes
No
No
Blackwell Publishing
Yes
Yes
No
No
EBSCO Publishing
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Elsevier-ScienceDirect
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Emerald Group Publishing
Yes
No
No
Extenza
Yes
No
No
Geological Society of America
Yes
No
No
HighWire Press
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Ingenta
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
ISI
DB1
Yes
Yes
DB2
Yes
Yes
Yes
DB3
MetaPress
Yes
No
No
Nature Publishing Group
Yes
Yes
Yes
Oxford University Press
Yes
No
No
Portland Press
No
Yes
No
ProQuest Information & Learning
Yes
No
No
Public Library of Science
Yes
No
No
Swets Blackwell
Yes
Yes
Yes
Thomson Learning/Gale
Yes ( zero usage not reported)
No
No
Wiley
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
COUNTER reports
• JR1 = Journal Report 1: Number of Successful Full-Text Article
Requests by Month and Journal
• JR2 = Journal Report 2: Turnaways by Month and Journal
• DB1 = Database Report 1: Total Searches and Sessions by Month
and Database
• DB2 = Database Report 2: Turnaways by Month and Database
• DB3 = Database Report 3: Total Searches and Sessions by Month
and Service
• JR3 = Number of Successful Item Requests and Turnaways by
Month, Journal and Page Type
• JR4 = Total Searches Run by Month and Service
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Role of pilot sites
1. Definitions of terms used in the COUNTER
CoP
•
Clear, appropriate, omissions
2. Usage reports
•
Merging, content, format, delivery, additional
reports
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Format & delivery
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Definitions: do the terms used in the usage reports work for you?
As far as you can tell, are the vendors adhering to these definitions?
Format: do they conform exactly to the specification for that report in
section 4.1 of the Code of Practice?
Delivery: are the reports available on a password-controlled website
Delivery: are the reports provided as a CSV file, a Microsoft Excel file,
or as a file that can be imported into Microsoft Excel?
Frequency: are the reports updated monthly? Are the updates
available within four weeks of the end of the reporting period?
Alerting: are you offered an email alert when the new monthly report
is available?
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Ease of manipulation
•
What do you use the reports for?
•
Are there internal metrics that you create or plan to create using
the data from these reports?
•
Is it easy to extract and analyse data from the reports?
•
How easy is it to merge data from the same report from different
vendors?
•
We are considering the creation of a librarian toolkit that should
facilitate the automatic consolidation of usage data from different
vendor sites. How would such a toolkit be useful to you?
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics
Lessons learnt…
• Double counting full-text
• Complexity of some COUNTER reports
• Publishers/aggregators/Athens
– Different figures to be added
• Other issues reported from pilot
UKSG Conference, 29th-31st March, 2004. Workshop – Using COUNTER statistics