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PIRUS

Introduction to the draft Release 1 of the PIRUS Code of Practice for recording and reporting usage at the individual article level

The PIRUS Code of Practice has been established as an outcome of the JISC- funded PIRUS (Publisher and Institutional Repository Usage Statistics) project, whose overall aim was to assess the feasibility of and develop the technical, organizational and economic models for the recording, reporting and consolidation of usage of Journal Articles hosted by Publishers, Aggregators, Institutional Repositories and Subject Repositories.

PIRUS is consistent with the COUNTER Code of Practice and COUNTER will be responsible for its development, ongoing management and implementation. This draft Release 1 of PIRUS Code of Practice will be available on the COUNTER website for public comment until 30 April 2013. Feedback received will be taken into account by the COUNTER Executive Committee in the preparation of the final, definitive version of Release 1, which will be published later in 2013. To have their usage statistics and reports designated PIRUS-compliant vendors and services will have to provide usage statistics that conform to this Code of Practice.

Scope of PIRUS

The PIRUS Code of Practice provides a framework for the recording, exchange and interpretation of online usage statistics for individual full-text journal articles. In doing so, it covers the following areas:

• Article types to be counted;
• Article versions to be counted;
• Data elements to be measured;
• Definitions of these data elements;
• Content and format of usage reports;
• Requirements for data processing;
• Requirements for auditing;
• Guidelines to avoid duplicate counting when intermediary gateways and aggregators are used

While this Release focuses on journal articles, its principles may be applied to other categories of individual content items that are well defined, and have sufficiently robust metadata associated with them

Features of PIRUS

The PIRUS Code of Practice provides the specifications and tools that will allow COUNTER-compliant publishers, repositories and other organizations to record and report usage statistics at the individual article level that are credible, compatible and consistent. COUNTER-compliant publishers may build on the existing COUNTER tools to do so, while an alternative approach is provided for non-COUNTER compliant repositories, which is tailored to their systems and capabilities. This Code of Practice contains the following features:

• A list of Definitions and other terms that are relevant to recording and reporting usage of individual items
• A methodology for the recording and reporting of usage at the individual article level, including specifications for the metadata to be recorded, the content types, and the versions whose usage may be counted.
• Specifications for the PIRUS Article Reports.
• Data processing rules to ensure that the usage data reported are credible, consistent and compatible
• Specifications for the independent auditing of the PIRUS reports
• A description of the role of:
• A Central Clearing House (CCH) in the calculation and consolidation of PIRUS usage data for articles.
• Other Clearing Houses in relation to the CCH.

Draft Release 1 of the PIRUS Code of Practice for recording and reporting usage at the individual article level

Appendix A: Glossary of Terms

Appendix B: Vendor Declaration of PIRUS Compliance

Appendix C: Specification for the Collection of Individual Item Usage Data

Appendix D: Protocols for Repositories