Name:
Reporting to the World: COUNTER for Open Access
Description:
Reporting to the World: COUNTER for Open Access
Thumbnail URL:
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Duration:
T00H08M02S
Embed URL:
https://stream.cadmore.media/player/3de44a87-e4ea-4705-8ebd-1ddb8efaad8b
Content URL:
https://cadmoreoriginalmedia.blob.core.windows.net/3de44a87-e4ea-4705-8ebd-1ddb8efaad8b/COUNTER 22 - CLASS 2.mp4?sv=2019-02-02&sr=c&sig=k5OOg%2FXL%2FE771Lc%2F1OAp8j%2FKcH8eRhx5CsffxBl1Y4M%3D&st=2024-11-23T08%3A03%3A51Z&se=2024-11-23T10%3A08%3A51Z&sp=r
Upload Date:
2022-02-04T00:00:00.0000000
Transcript:
Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
Welcome to this COUNTER Foundation Class on Reporting to the World. People tend to think about COUNTER reports as one of the inputs information librarians use to evaluate subscription content in an increasingly open world. COUNTER has evolved to address new needs. In this session, we will outline the ways in which consistent, credible, comparable usage data remains relevant in evaluating the investment libraries are making in open access, journal and book content, and we will discuss what counter has been doing to facilitate open access reporting within the bounds of release.
5.0.2 as we've already said, libraries have traditionally relied on COUNTER usage reports for measuring subscription content that could include total usage or cost per use of the material to which they subscribe or the number of turn aways. That is how many times their users were unable to access content to which the library did not subscribe. As an increasingly large component of scholarly output is being made open access libraries are now becoming increasingly interested in the usage of open access content that might be the usage of OA content published by authors affiliated with the institution or even the cost per use of the materials funded by the library.
There are many claims made about open access, providing better value for money, as well as its ability to expand the reach of scholarly outputs and help authors attract more readers. By making use of COUNTER reports, libraries, publishers and funders can start to validate the truth of those claims. Before we move on, a quick word on cost per use, an interesting concept that should be calculated consistently depending on the input to calculate the cost per use for a subscription journal, for example, you need to know the price or cost of the subscription paid by your institution.
The number of times people associated with your institution have made use of content covered by the subscription. We recommend using Unique_Item_Requests for this. And you then divide the first by the second to obtain your cost per use for the subscription for open access content, the same top-line concept applies, but the calculation is usually run at the article level. For this, you need to know the price or cost paid to make the article open access, for example, an article processing charge.
The total number of times the article has been used by anyone in the world still using Unique- Item_ Requests, and you divide the first by the second to get a cost per use for your APC spend. The COUNTER Code of Practice Released 5.0.2 states about the institution name in the report header that for open access publishers and repositories where it is not possible to identify usage by individual institutions.
The usage should be attributed to the world that is section 3.2.1. Table 3F When this rule was added, the focus was on fully open access publishers, and the expectation was that fully OA publishers would not try to attribute usage to institutions. So a report to the world was intended to include all global usage, whether attributed to institutions or not.
To explain that a little, I need to go back to authentication and authorization, both start with a user in our case, Sam visiting a publisher platform. The first thing the platform will do, usually invisibly, is check to see whether Sam can be authenticated. That is, does their IP match and institution's records. Have they already logged in with shibboleth and so forth? If the user can be authenticated as belonging to an institution, all of their usage will be attributed to that institution.
If the user cannot be authenticated, they may still be able to use content that might be open access or free to read material, for example. And the platform will track that usage, but it cannot be attributed to a particular organization or institution. Note that fully open access publishers can make use of databases of IP details for institutions all over the world to help them attribute usage.
But this is not necessary even when a publisher does make use of such a database of IP ranges to log usage because a lot of usage happens outside of institutional IP ranges. It cannot be attributed to any institution. Total usage of publisher platforms is built up of non-attributed and attributed usage, though most away platforms will only have non-attributed usage within that split, where the content is paywalled or free to read or open access is a secondary question.
By reporting total usage that is by reporting the world, OA publishers can easily provide COUNTER reports to libraries and funders. The latest release of the COUNTER Code of Practice release 5.0.2 includes optional elements to provide more granular usage reporting to the world attributed shows whether or not the content provider was able to attribute the usage to an institution.
Valid values are Yes and no. Country name and country code make use of ISO to show global usage broken down by country and region name and region code make use of the related ISO to show global usage broken down by country subdivision, for example Australia to New South Wales. These new elements mean that in addition to reporting, total usage reports could be broken down to show attribution types or geographic locations of usage.
We worked with librarians and publishers during 2021 to determine what they needed to be able to do with total usage reports to make them really valuable for reporting. And the four things listed on this slide came through as the priorities. First, a librarian might want to retrieve a report that showed their institutional usage, plus all other usage.
Second, they may want to see their institutional usage compared with all other attributed usage and then with all non-attributed usage. Third, geographically, librarians were interested in breaking down usage by country of user, where unknown indicates users whose location cannot be placed. And fourth librarians wished to see their institutional usage within the context of their country.
Regions were not of particular interest, particularly as IP ranges are occasionally reallocated. And with the use of VPNs and similar workarounds, geographic breakdowns may not be entirely reliable. Publishers were not unanimously in favor of the new elements, but they did not raise significant objections as they are all optional. Visit our Media Library to find out more about COUNTER Release 5.0.2 and check out additional Foundation Classes and Manuals.
Thank you.
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