Usage Statistics

• COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources): Project Counter Release 5 ​
  COUNTER’s library and content provider members have contributed to the development of Release 5 (R5) of the COUNTER Code of Practice. The Code of Practice enables content providers to produce consistent, comparable, and credible usage data for their online content. This allows librarians and other interested parties to compare the usage data they receive, and to understand and demonstrate the value of the electronic resources to which they subscribe. R5 will become the current Code of Practice and the requirement for COUNTER compliance effective January of 2019.

• COUNTER Metrics

There are several different types of usage metric in Release 5, which break down into investigations and requests. An investigation is tracked when a user performs any action in relation to a content item or title, while a request is specifically related to viewing or downloading the full content item.

• Investigations
  • Total_Item_Investigations: the total number of times a content item or information related to a content item was accessed.
  • Unique_Item_Investigations: the number of unique content items (e.g. chapters) investigated by a user.
  • Unique_Title_Investigations: the number of unique book titles investigated by a user.
• Requests
  • Total_Item_Requests: the total number of times the full text of a content item was downloaded or viewed.
  • Unique_Item_Requests: the number of unique content items (e.g. chapters) requested by a user.
  • Unique_Title_Requests: the number of unique book titles requested by a user.
• Searches
  •  Searches_Regular: Number of searches conducted against a userselected database where results are returned to the user on the host UI.
  • Searches_Automated: Searches conducted on the “Host Site” or “Discovery Service” where results are returned in the host-site UI and multiple databases are searched without user selection of “Databases”.
  • Searches_Federated: Searches conducted by a federated search engine where the Search activity is conducted remotely via client-server technology.
  • Searches_Platform: Searches conducted by users and captured at the platform level.

• COUNTER Master Reports and Standard Views
  • Platform Master Report (PR_Master): Shows activity across all metrics for entire platform. 
  • Platform Usage (PR_P1): A pre-set Standard View of PR showing total and unique item requests, as well as platform searches.

• Database Master Report (DR_Master): Shows activity across all metrics for entire databases or fixed collections of content which behave like a database.
• Database Search and Item Usage (DR_D1): A pre-set Standard View of DR showing total item investigations and requests, as well as searches.
• Database Access Denied (DR_D2): A pre-set Standard View of DR showing where users were denied access because simultaneous use (concurrency) licenses were exceeded, or their institution did not have a license for the database. 

• Title Master Report (TR_Master): Shows activity across all metrics for entire titles, which may be books or journals.
• Book Requests (Excluding OA_Gold) (TR_B1): A pre-set book Standard View of TR showing full-text activity for all content that is not Gold Open Access. Numbers of Unique_Item_Requests may vary between sites, will vary based on whether the content is delivered as a complete book or by chapter, but the Unique_Title_Requests will be the same regardless of delivery mechanism.
• Book Access Denied (TR_B2): A pre-set book Standard View of TR showing where users were denied access to books because simultaneous use (concurrency) licenses were exceeded, or their institution did not have a license for the database. 
• Book Usage by Access Type (TR_B3): A pre-set book Standard View of TR showing all applicable metric types broken down by Access_Type. 
• Journal Requests (Excluding OA_Gold) (TR_J1): A pre-set journal Standard View of TR showing full-text activity for all content that is not Gold Open Access. 
• Journal Access Denied (TR_J2): A pre-set journal Standard View of TR showing where users were denied access to journals because their institution did not have a license for the content, or simultaneous use (concurrency) licenses were exceeded. 
• Journal Usage by Access Type (TR_J3): A pre-set journal Standard View of TR showing all applicable metric types broken down by Access_Type. 
• Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding OA_Gold) (TR_J4): A pre-set journal Standard View of TR breaking down the full-text usage of non-Gold Open Access content by year of publication (YOP). 

• Item Master Report (IR_Master): Shows activity across all metrics for single items, such as articles or videos.
• Journal Articles Requests (IR_A1): A pre-set Standard View of IR showing total item requests for journal articles.
• Multimedia Item Requests (IR_M1): A pre-set Standard View of IR showing total item requests for multimedia items. 

COMPARING RELEASE 5 TO RELEASE 4

• COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources):  http://www.projectcounter.org/r4/COPR4.pdf​
  Launched in March 2002, COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is an international initiative serving librarians, publishers and intermediaries by setting standards that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way.
  The first COUNTER Code of Practice, covering online journals and databases, was published in 2003. COUNTER's coverage was extended further with the launch of the Code of Practice for online books and reference works in 2006. The body of COUNTER compliant usage statistics has steadily grown as more and more vendors have adopted the COUNTER Codes of Practice.
  This has contributed to the new discipline of usage bibliometrics and a great deal of work is underway to try to establish value metrics. associated with usage, in which the COUNTER compliant statistics play an increasingly important role.
  • COUNTER Reports
    • Journal Report 1:  Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal, Standard  
    • Journal Report 1 GOA:  Number of Successful Gold Open Access Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal, Standard  
    • Journal Report 1a:  Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests from an Archive by Month and Journal Optional ( See Appendix H)
    • Journal Report 2:  Access Denied to Full-Text Articles by Month, Journal and Category, Standard 
    • Journal Report 3:  Number of Successful Item Requests by Month, Journal and Page-type Optional (See Appendix H)
    • Journal Report 3 Mobile:  Number of Successful Item Requests by Month, Journal and Page-type for usage on a mobile device Optional 
    • Journal Report 4: Total Searches Run By Month and Collection  Optional 
    • Journal Report 5: Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Year-of-Publication (YOP) and Journal, Standard 
       
    • Database Report 1: Total Searches, Result Clicks and Record Views by Month and Database,  Standard
    • Database Report 2:  Access Denied by Month, Database and Category Standard 
       
    • Platform Report 1: (formerly Database Report 3) Total Searches, Result Clicks and Record Views by Month and Platform, Standard 
       
    • Book Report 1: Number of Successful Title Requests by Month and Title, Standard  
    • Book Report 2: Number of Successful Section Requests by Month and Title,Standard  
    • Book Report 3: Access Denied to Content Items by Month, Title and Category, Standard 
    • Book Report 4: Access Denied to Content items by Month, Platform and Category, Standard 
    • Book Report 5: Total Searches by Month and Title, Standard 
       
    • Multimedia Report 1: Number of Successful Full Multimedia Content Unit Requests by Month and Collection, Standard 
    • Multimedia Report 2 :Number of Successful Full Multimedia Content Unit Requests by Month, Collection and Item Type Optional 
       
    • Title Report 1 (formerly Journal/Book Report 1) Number of Successful Requests for Journal Full-Text Articles and Book Sections by Month and Title, Optional 
    • 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, Optional
    • Title Report 2: Access Denied to Full-Text Items by Month, Title and Category,  Optional
    • Title Report 3:  Number of Successful Item Requests by Month, Title and Page Type, Optional
    • Title Report 3 Mobile: Number of Successful Item Requests by Month, Title and Page Type (formatted for normal browsers/delivered to mobile devices AND formatted for mobile devices/delivered to mobile devices, Optional
       
• NISO - (National Information Standards Organization)
  NISO is the National Information Standards Organization of the United States. http://www.niso.org/ 
  COUNTER has worked with NISO on SUSHI (Standardized Usage Harvesting Initiative) to develop a protocol to facilitate the automated harvesting and consolidation of usage statistics from different vendors.
   
• SUSHI - (Standardized Usage Harvesting Initiative)
  a protocol to facilitate the automated harvesting and consolidation of usage statistics from different vendors. More information on SUSHI protocol may be found on the NISO/SUSHI website :http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi/.
   

• ARL Statistics and Assessment
  http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/statistics-assessment
  The ARL (Association of Research Libraries) Statistics and Assessment has been set up in response to the following two needs: increasing demand for libraries to demonstrate outcomes/impacts in areas important to the institution, and increasing pressure to maximise use of resources.

  Of particular interest is the work associated with the E-metrics portion of this initiative, which is an effort to explore the feasibility of defining and collecting data on the use and value of electronic resources.