1. COUNTER Update
February 2006

2. 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

3. COUNTER Codes 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

4. 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

5. 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: £ £2.91
Publisher C: £ £3.29
Publisher D: £ £2.26

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 ( alert, access on password-controlled website)
Accuracy (Tolerance is -8% to +2%)

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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?

14. 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

15. For more information……….
Thank you!
Peter Shepherd (Project Director)