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University Library Statistics

Information on library metrics and completing the Library portion of the ACRL, IPEDS, and other national surveys.

Counter Report Types

Acronym Title Definition
PR Platform Master Report A customizable report that summarizes activity across a provider's platforms and allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options.
PR_P1 Platform Usage A standard view of the Platform Master Report offering platform-level usage summarized by metric type.
DR Database Master Report A customizable report that summarizes activity across a provider's databases and allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options.
DR_D1 Database Search and Item Usage A standard view of the Database Master Report reporting on key search and request metrics needed to evaluate a database.
DR_D2 Database Access Denied Reports on "Access_Denied" activity for databases where users were denied access because simultaneous-use licenses were exceeded.
TR Title Master Report A customizable report detailing activity by title that allows the user to apply filters and select other configuration options.
TR_B1 Book Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold") Reports on full text activity for non-Gold "Open Access" books as "Total_Item_Requests" and "Unique_Title_Requests". The "Unique_Title_Requests" provides comparable usage across book platforms. The "Total_Item_Requests" shows overall activity; however, numbers between sites will vary significantly based on how the content is delivered (e.g. delivered as a complete book or by chapter).
TR_B2 Book Access Denied Reports on "Access_Denied" activity for books where users denied access because simultaneous-use licenses were exceeded or their institution did not have a license for the book.
TR_B3 Book Usage by Access Type Reports on book usage showing all applicable metric types broken down by "Access_Type". The EBSCOhost platform supports one access type ("Controlled").
TR_J1 Journal Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold") Reports on non-Gold "Open Access" Journal content as "Total_Item_Requests" and "Unique_Item_Requests". The "Unique_Item_Requests" shows comparable usage across journal platforms by reducing the inflationary effect that occurs when HTML full text automatically displays and the user then accesses the PDF version. The "Total_Item_Requests" shows overall activity.
TR_J2 Journal Access Denied Reports on "Access_Denied" activity for journal content where users were denied access because simultaneous-use licenses were exceeded or their institution did not have a license for the title.
TR_J3 Journal Usage by Access Type Reports on usage of journal content for all metric types broken down by "Access_Type". The EBSCOhost platform supports one access type ("Controlled").
TR_J4 Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding "OA_Gold") Breaks down the usage of non-Gold Open Access journal content by year of publication (YOP) providing counts for the metric types "Total_Item_Requests" and "Unique_Item_Requests". Provides the details necessary to analyze usage of content in backfiles or covered by perpetual access agreement. Note: COUNTER reports do not provide access-model or perpetual-access rights details.

Metric Types

Metric Type Definition Reports
Searches_Platform Searches conducted by users and captured at the “Platform” level. Each user-initiated search can only be counted once regardless of the number of “Databases” involved in the search. This metric only applies to “Platform Reports and Views”.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Platform Usage
Searches_Regular Number of searches conducted against a user-selected database where results are returned to the user on the host UI. The user is responsible for selecting the “Databases” or set of data to be “Searched”. This metric only applies to usage tracked at the “Database” level and is not represented at the “Platform” level.
  • Database Master Report
  • Database Search and Item Usage
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”. This metric only applies to usage that is tracked at the “Database” level but is not represented at the “Platform” level.
  • Database Master Report
  • Database Search and Item Usage
Searches_Federated Searches conducted by a federated search engine where the “Search” activity is conducted remotely via client-server technology. This metric only applies to usage that is tracked at the “Database” level but is not represented at the “Platform” level.
  • Database Master Report
  • Database Search and Item Usage
Total_Item_Investigations Total number of times a “Content Item” or information related to a “Content Item” was accessed. Double-click filters are applied to these transactions. Examples of “Content Items” are article, eBook, book chapter, or multimedia files.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Book Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Usage by Access Type
  • Database Search and Item Usage
Unique_Item_Investigations Number of unique “Content Items” investigated in a user-session. Examples of “Content Items” are article, book chapter, or multimedia files.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Book Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Usage by Access Type
Unique_Title_Investigations Number of unique titles investigated in a user-session. This metric applies to Books only.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Book Usage by Access Type
Total_Item_Requests Total number of times a “Content Item” was requested (i.e. the full text or content was downloaded or viewed). Double-click filters applied.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Platform Usage
  • Database Search and Item Usage
  • Book Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Book Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Journal Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding "OA_Gold")
Unique_Item_Requests Number of unique “Content Items” requested in a user-session. Examples of “Content Items” are article, eBook, book chapter, or multimedia files.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Platform Usage
  • Book Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Journal Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding "OA_Gold")
Unique_Title_Requests Number of unique titles requested in a user-session. This metric applies to Books only.
  • Platform Master Report
  • Platform Usage
  • Database Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Book Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Book Usage by Access Type
Limit_Exceeded Number of times access was denied because the licensed simultaneous-user limit for the user’s institution was exceeded.
  • Book Access Denied
  • Database Access Denied
  • Journal Access Denied
No_License

Counted when a user is unable to access a unique content item because their institution does not have a license to the content.

  • Book Access Denied
  • Database Access Denied
  • Journal Access Denied

Data Types

Data Type Definition Reports
Article An article, typically published in a journal or reference work
  • IR
Book A monograph text
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Book Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Book Access Denied
  • Book Usage by Access Type
  • IR
Book Segment A book segment (e.g. chapter, section label, etc.). Note that the book segment type will be represented by the “Section_Type” element in the COUNTER report.
  • IR
Database A fixed database where content is searched and accessed in the context of the database. A given item on the host may be in multiple databases but a transaction can be attributed to a specific database.
  • Database Master Report
  • Database Search and Item Usage
  • Database Access Denied
Dataset A data set
  • IR
Journal Textual content published serially as a journal or magazine
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Journal Requests (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • Journal Access Denied
  • Journal Usage by Access Type
  • Journal Requests by YOP (Excluding "OA_Gold")
  • IR
Multimedia Multimedia content such as audio, image, streaming audio, streaming video, and video
  • IR
Newspaper or Newsletter Textual content published serially in a newspaper or newsletter
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • IR
Other Content that cannot be classified by any of the other “Data Types”
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • IR
Platform A content platform that may reflect usage from multiple “Data Types”
  • Platform Master Report
  • Platform Usage
Report A report
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • IR
Thesis or Dissertation A thesis or dissertation
  • Platform Master Report
  • Title Master Report
  • Database Master Report
  • IR

Host Types

Counter Reports & Project Counter

What are Counter Reports?

COUNTER Reports provide standards for recording & reporting of online usage stats for consistency, credibility & compatibility among vendors.

COUNTER stands for Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources

How are Counter Reports Used?

Libraries can:

  • Compare usage statistics from different vendors
  • Derive useful metrics such as cost-per-use
  • Make better-informed purchasing decisions

Publishers and intermediaries:

  • Provide data to customers in a format they want
  • Compare usage of different delivery channels
  • Learn about genuine usage patterns
  • Generate new sales & contract renewals
Guides from Project Counter
What is Interest & How to interpret it? (on the Celus Usage Platform)

Statistics obtained from publishers use many different metrics, such as “Items displayed during search”, “Items retrieved by the user”, etc. Without knowing exactly how each of these metrics is defined (either in the COUNTER standard or outside of it for custom data), it is sometimes difficult for normal users to understand the presented statistics.

In order to simplify this and give users one specific measurement of how much each e-resource is used, we devised the concept of interest. This one value should make it possible to more easily compare values between different titles, platform and also time periods. It should also enable easier comparison between data obtained using different version of COUNTER.

Because different platforms focus on different types of services, the definition of interest cannot be the same. Some platforms offer searching capabilities, some offer full texts of journal articles or access to whole electronic books. In order to make it possible to distinguish between these cases, CELUS uses more than one interest type.

More information can be found on Celus Support

References

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