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Last updated: 17/04/2007
COUNTER FAQs
1: What is COUNTER?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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: What are the benefits of COUNTER membership?
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COUNTER
is owned by its members and the benefits of COUNTER membership
include:
- The right to influence the direction and management of COUNTER,
including the right to vote at the Annual General Meeting
- Regular member bulletins on the progress of COUNTER
- Advice on implementation of the COUNTER Code of Practice Usage Reports
- Reduce prices for COUNTER-approved services, such as auditing
6: How many COUNTER Codes of Practice are there?
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There are currently two valid COUNTER
Codes of Practices. These are: Release 2 of the Code of Practice for
Journals and Databases (valid from January 2006), 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.
7: How can I find out if a particular vendor is COUNTER compliant?
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All vendors who are COUNTER complaint
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.
8: How frequently will there be new Releases of the COUNTER Code of Practice?
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Release 1 of the Code of Practice for
Journals and databases was published in January 2003. Release 2 (the
currently valid Release) was published in April 2005 and valid from
January 2006. 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.
9: What does it mean when a vendor states that it is 'COUNTER compliant'?
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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?
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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 Release 2 of the Code of
Practice for Journals and Databases, and as Appendix D of Release 1
of the Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works. Both are
published on the COUNTER website (www.projectCounter.org
). The audit must be carried out within 18 months of a vendor
achieving COUNTER compliant status, and annually thereafter.
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-E, an organization
specifically devoted to online auditing and which has demonstrated to
COUNTER its ability to do this audit.
11: What are the next steps for COUNTER?
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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 archival usage; setting standards for
the usage of content held by institutional repositories; prefetching;
federated searches. 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 and with UKSG on the feasibility of developing a possible
new Usage Factor measure for journals.
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