The International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) compliant with COUNTER Release 5

We were delighted when The International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) became one of the first publishers to become Compliant with the Release 5 Code of Practice, having successfully passed an independent audit. We caught up with David Williams the Executive Director of IAEE to ask about his experience and for any tips he would like to share. Here is our mini-interview:

Question 1: Congratulations on being one of the first to pass a COUNTER Release 5 audit. Can you please tell us about IAEE and the content that you provide?

IAEE is a worldwide non-profit professional organization that strives to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas, experience, and issues among professionals interested in Energy Economics.  Our two peer-reviewed publications, The Energy Journal and Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, help us to advance the knowledge, understanding, and application of economics across all aspects of energy.

Question 2: Why is compliance with Release 5 important to IAEE and to your customers?

The value of a recognized standard for providing usage statistics to our subscribers cannot be overstated.  As economists, we well appreciate the need to aggregate usage statistics from many sources into consistent data that can be used to determine the value that our content brings to an organization.

Question 3: Can you tell us about your preparations for the COUNTER audit, and share any tips for other publishers preparing for their audit?

An in-depth understanding of the COUNTER 5 specifications is crucial to a successful audit. IAEE’s journey to COUNTER 5 compliancy started in October 2018.  As a small Society publisher, it took five months to reconfigure our systems to conform with the new Code of Practice, test, and complete an audit. While this required much effort and resource, it is evident that COUNTER 5 offers greater visibility into the way content is accessed and consumed.