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This is an archived version of the Code of Practice, for reference only. The current Code of Practice is Release 5.0.2.
 
 
 

The COUNTER Code of Practice for Release 4

 

Code of Practice
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Download Code of Practice - Release 4
 
 

Sections and Appendices »

Sections

General Information
Definitions of terms used
SUSHI
Usage Reports
Data Processing
Auditing
Compliance

Appendices

A: Glossary of Terms relevant to COUNTER
B: Vendor Declaration of COUNTER Compliance
C: SUSHI
D: Guidelines for implementation
E: Auditing requirements and tests
F: Excel Usage Reports examples
G: XML overview, with links to the up to date schemas
H: Optional Additional Usage reports
I: List of federated and automated search engines
J. List of internet robots, crawlers, spiders, etc.
K: Text and Data Mining
Ka: Text and Data Mining Reports
L: Book Report 7
M: Provider Discovery Reports
N: The COUNTER Code of Practice for Articles

SUSHI

The advent of the SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) protocol (http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi/ ) has greatly facilitated the handling of large volumes of usage data, and its implementation by vendors allows the automated retrieval of the COUNTER usage reports into local systems, making this process much less time consuming for the librarian or library consortium A group of institutions joining together to license content.administrator.

For this reason, in addition to providing the usage reports specified below (as a Microsoft Excel file, as a Tab-separated Value (TSV) file, or as a file that can be easily imported into Microsoft Excel) COUNTER usage reports must also be provided in XML format in accordance with the COUNTER XML schema that is specified by SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.and may be found on the NISO/SUSHI website at: http://www.niso.org/schemas/sushi/ The COUNTER schema covers all the usage reports listed in Section The first level of subdivision of a “Book” or “Reference Work”.4 below. COUNTER reports in XML must be downloadable using the SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.protocol.

COUNTER and NISO partner with other organizations to provide tools that facilitate the implementation of the COUNTER standards. COUNTER also encourages the development of Open Source tools, such as the SUSHIAn international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI. Harvester for Consortia (http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi/tools/#harvester). Further information on these tools may be found on the NISO/SUSHI website.

3.1 SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.Server Response Times

A SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.Server must respond to the SUSHI Request A category of COUNTER “Metric Type” that represent a user A person who accesses the online resourceaccessing content (i.e. full text of an “Article”)from a client within 120 seconds.  SUSHI Servers that are unable to deliver consistently a completed usage report within this timeframe should adopt an architecture that allows for background processing of usage data – the server can respond to the initial request A category of COUNTER “Metric Type” that represent a user A person who accesses the online resourceaccessing content (i.e. full text of an “Article”)with a “Server Busy” exception while queuing the request A category of COUNTER “Metric Type” that represent a user A person who accesses the online resourceaccessing content (i.e. full text of an “Article”)for background processing. Since most SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.clients will wait minutes or hours before retrying the request, the report will be ready to be delivered on the subsequent request.

3.2 Further information on SUSHI

Further information on SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.is available in Appendix C of this Code of Practice

Comprehensive information on SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.is also available on the NISO/SUSHI website (http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi/). As well as full documentation on the standard itself, the SUSHI An international standard (Z39-93) that describes a method for automating the harvesting of reports.  COUNTER_SUSHI is an implementation of this standard for harvesting COUNTER reports. COUNTER compliance requires “Content Providers” to implement COUNTER_SUSHI.website provides:

  • Information on Getting Started
  • SUSHI Tools
  • SUSHI Schemas
  • SUSHI Reports Registry
  • SUSHI Server Registry
  • SUSHI Developers List
  • SUSHI FAQs

How to become Counter Compliant

All academic libraries across the world use and trust COUNTER usage reports to inform renewal and new purchasing decisions, to inform faculty about the value of the library and its resources and to understand user behaviour and improve the user experience.

Counter will help publishers and vendors to become compliant. The The Friendly Guide for Providers Release 5  and Technical Notes and will provide the information you will need to start the process. Content providers transitioning from Release 4 to Release 5 compliance will also find transition timeline useful in their planning.

Audit Process

To comply with the Code of Practice, publishers and vendors must be independently audited within six months of signing the Declaration of COUNTER Compliance, and annually thereafter.

There are three approved COUNTER auditors:

COUNTER will also accept an audit by any Chartered Accountant (UK), CPA (USA) or their equivalent elsewhere.

 
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