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COUNTER FAQs

1: What is COUNTER?

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources), launched in 2002, is an international initiative to improve the reliability of online usage statistics. It is supported by the vendor, intermediary and librarian communities. COUNTER’s objective is to ensure that vendor online usage reports are credible, compatible and consistent. This is achieved by the publication of Codes of Practice that specify the content, format, delivery mechanisms and data processing rules for a set of core usage reports that are easily implemented by vendors and easily understood by librarians.

2: How is COUNTER organised?

COUNTER is a not-for-profit company, based in the United Kingdom and owned by its members. Overall legal responsibility rests with a Board of Directors, who have appointed an Executive Committee to oversee the operation. A Project Director, reporting to the Executive committee, is responsible for the day-to-day management of COUNTER. The publisher, intermediary and librarian communities are all represented on the Board and on the Executive Committee, as well as on the International Advisory Board.

3: How is COUNTER funded?

COUNTER’s principal source of funding is annual membership fees, supplemented by occasional research grants for specific projects.

4: Who is eligible for COUNTER membership?

Publishers, intermediaries, libraries, and library consortia are all eligible for membership of COUNTER, as are industry organizations, such as ARL (the Association of Research Libraries) and ALPSP (the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers).

5: How many COUNTER Codes of Practice are there?

There are currently two COUNTER Codes of Practices. These are: the Code of Practice for Journals and Databases (Release 3 has, since September 2009, been the only valid version of this Code of Practice); and Release 1 of the Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works (valid from March 2006). Only vendors whose reports comply with the specifications of these Releases of the Codes of Practice can be regarded as COUNTER compliant.

6: How can I find out if a particular vendor is COUNTER compliant?

All vendors who are COUNTER compliant are listed on the ‘Compliant Vendors’ page of the COUNTER website (www.projectCounter.org), along with the COUNTER usage reports that they provide. Only the vendors and usage reports listed on this page on the website can be regarded as COUNTER compliant.

7: How frequently will there be new Releases of the COUNTER Code of Practice?

Release 1 of the Code of Practice for Journals and databases was published in January 2003. Release 2 was published in April 2005 and valid from January 2006. Release 3 (the currently valid Release) was published in August 2008 and was valid from 1 September 2009. There is no fixed timetable for future Releases, as COUNTER responds to the demands of and changes in the market. It is not envisaged, however, that there will be a new Release of a given Code of Practice more than every 2-3 years.

8: When a new Release is implemented mid-calendar-year, do usage reports that are compliant with the prior Release during the first part of that year have to be retrospectively upgraded to meet the requirements of the new Release?

No. Retrospective upgrading is not required. For most vendors such retrospective upgrading of the usage reports is not possible, as the relevant raw data will not have been retained.

9: What does it mean when a vendor states that it is 'COUNTER compliant'?

This means that the vendor is providing usage reports, for a specific range of its online products and services, that are compliant with the current Release of a COUNTER Code of Practice. Only those vendor products and services that are listed in the Register of Vendors published on the COUNTER website may be regarded as being COUNTER compliant. When a vendor states that it is COUNTER compliant this does not imply that all of its online products/services are COUNTER compliant. Customers should check the compliance status of individual vendors on the COUNTER website.

10: How is the COUNTER audit done?

The COUNTER audit must be carried out by an independent auditor, who does an online audit, using test scripts prepared by COUNTER. The audit process, together with the test scripts, is described in Appendix E of the Code of Practice for Journals and Databases, and in Appendix D of the Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works, which are published on the COUNTER website (www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html).

COUNTER will recognise any Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the USA, any Chartered Accountant in the UK, or their equivalents elsewhere, as independent auditors. Alternatively, vendors may choose to use ABC, an organization specifically devoted to online auditing and which has demonstrated to COUNTER its ability to do this audit.

11: How can I find out more about COUNTER?

The full texts of all our Codes of Practice are freely available on the COUNTER website (www.projectCounter.org), along with much other information on COUNTER. In addition, for those who want to know more about implementing COUNTER and using the usage reports, we cooperate with the UK Serials Group and with NISO on a series of workshops and webinars. Information on such events may be found on the COUNTER website.

12: What are the next steps for COUNTER?

In addition to increasing the number of vendors that are compliant with the COUNTER Codes of Practice, we shall continue to improve and refine the Codes of Practice and extend the range of content covered by them. Specific issues currently being addressed include: reporting of database usage; setting standards for the usage of content held by institutional repositories; refinements to the Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works. COUNTER also participates in industry initiatives that are designed to improve the quality of usage data, to facilitate the management of usage data and to develop measurement tools derived from usage data. To theses ends COUNTER has actively worked with NISO on SUSHI, with the UK Serials Group on the feasibility of developing a possible new Usage Factor measure for journals; and with the UK JISC on the development of standards for recording and reporting usage at the individual article level.